Guam Congresswoman Madeleine Z. Bordallo had successfully inserted the war claims bill as an amendment to the defense budget bill, which easily passed through the House. The defense authorization bill now goes to the Senate, but some last-minute amendments by Congressman Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawaii, could derail Guam’s best chance for war reparations in six decades, and according to an editorial in the Washington Post on Monday, may prove too costly for the U.S.
While the passage of the measure by the Senate would make many here happy, Abercrombie’s amendments could stifle the pending transfer of 8,000 Marines from Okinawa to Guam and bring hopes of economic revival for the region to an abrupt halt.
The provisions proposed by Abercrombie would double the estimated $10 billion cost of construction on Guam as part of the realignment strategy negotiated with Japan.
Abercrombie’s amendment would require that at least 70 percent of the work on realignment projects be reserved for U.S. workers.
It would also require that realignment projects on Guam pay workers a wage rate comparable to the prevailing rates in Hawaii for similar positions.
Labor experts on Guam have repeatedly commented publicly on the shortage of workers that will be needed, not just on Guam, but throughout the region as thousands of Marines, their dependents, and support personnel begin their migration to Guam’s shores.
Wages too high
The Washington Post editorial noted that “the ostensible rationale is that Guam does not have a large enough workforce to meet the demand, and it is necessary to bring wage levels into a competitive range to attract U.S. workers.”
Hawaii wage rates can be double or triple the $14 per hour average paid to construction workers on Guam.
James Martinez, executive director of the Guam Contractors Association, said last week that the group’s members would have to look at the impact the amendments could have on outcomes for the military projects.
The association members met last Wednesday to discuss the latest developments, and afterward Martinez told Variety, “There is a need for caution and review as we look into how this impacts not only the construction industry here, but also tourism and retail and such.”
The contractors group is determined to address the matter and this week announced plans to lobby against the amendments with D.C. officials.
The Post editorial also warned about the challenges facing Guam as it struggles to prepare for the influx of what the respected D.C. paper defined as a 14 percent population increase. Local officials call that estimate extremely conservative, because it does not fully account for the rotating population of guest workers. As many as 26,000 workers are being eyed from the Philippines alone, officials say.
One company, Younex International, has plans to construct a workers’ village across from the Micronesia Mall. The project, according to the company, hopes to house 18,000 H2 workers.
Population explosion
Coupled with the Marines, their dependents, military support staff and personnel, the island ostensibly may see a population explosion by as much as one-third. Guam will likely see a population increase over a five-year period that would organically take more than 20 years to achieve.
The editorial further pointed out the steep cost to Guam to deal with the pressures that this magnitude of population increase will places on the island’s already-overburdened infrastructure.
The author stated that “sorely taxed by the new arrivals,” Guam would require “an estimated $6.1 billion of work on roads, water, sewerage, waste processing and the power grid.”
Guam’s annual budget is less than $1 billion, and the money to address the needs predicted by just a 14 percent population increase will have to come from outside; a greater increase would only confound the matters further, noted the Washington D.C. newspaper editorial.
Abercrombie is not the only one whose efforts appear to be a stalling tactic with regard to the buildup. Recent Japanese media reports noted testimony provide by U.S. Marine Corps Commandant James Conway of problems relating to training and the ability to move Futenma Air Station facilities from the center of Okinawa to Nago, a more northerly town where the U.S. Marines’ Camp Schwab is located.
The commandant urged the senators to consider alternatives to the current plan, which was interpreted by Japanese government officials to signal that “the transfer to the alternative facility agreed by Japan and the United States won’t be permitted.”
