Mathews Pothen, president and chief executive officer of the Guam Shipyard, wants to reassure his employees that the alien laborers, who will begin work at the shipyard in October, will not mean any of the current 300 employees will lose their job as a result. “We have 300 employees, we will not lay off any one of them,” he said.
Pothen will meet with department managers and employees this morning to reassure them that their jobs are secure and reaffirm for them that management has no intention of furloughing employees now or in the future.
An email sent to lawmakers and to Pothen expressed the confusion and frustration of a shipyard worker who alleged that the shipyard will begin furloughing local employees to make room for the H-2 workers.
The email also alleged that the Guam Shipyard had only three apprentices and that employees have been waiting for years for a pay raise.
But Pothen denied this, stating that there are currently 12 apprentices and a new program to begin in the fall for 20 slots. As for pay raises, the shipyard executive said the shipyard follows the federal government’s guidelines on pay scales.
“We have provided pay increases. We have a temporary workforce and a permanent workforce. We look at the pay scales; we are regulated by the federal government. They allow us what pay increases to provide. Whenever they have allowed us to give pay increases, we give pay increases,” said Pothen.
Greg Massey, administrator of the Alien Labor and Processing Division, said yesterday that furloughs or reduction in work hours for regular employees could jeopardize the Guam Shipyard’s labor certification.
“That’s illegal. We would block any kind of move like that. You cannot displace U.S. workers with H-2 workers. If this happened, we would just basically block the guest workers from coming in,” said Massey.
The shipyard president asserted that a large project coming up at the end of the year and hiring the 125 workers are needed to supplement the current workforce.
Pothen pointed out that shipyard workers are currently working 70 hours a week and claimed the increase in the workforce will be good. He further stressed that once the project is complete, the temporary workers will be sent home.
“We have a large project coming up towards the end of the year. If we don’t prepare for that, the Navy will take that work and send it to Singapore or maybe they will bring additional people from stateside and we don’t want to do that. We want our workers to be maximized and we want to bring in additional workers so that we supplement our workforce with additional workers,” said Pothen.
“If we start seeing that people are getting laid off or reduced hours, then we would write to U.S. Immigration, basically saying they didn’t do what they said they were going to do and we’re revoking the labor certification,” said Massey.
Massey said labor certifications have never been revoked because employers are too smart to challenge the process.
