4 minute read
JULY
President’s Letter
Hafa Adai GCA Members:
The COVID-19 may have slowed things down a bit for Guam, but construction continues at a fast pace especially for the military construction sector. Our local contractors have faced many challenges in the past years, bit we are a resilient community and we have always somehow, overcome these adversities. One most recent challenge to Guam contactors was the president’s Proclamation 010014 of April 22, 2020 (Suspension of Entry of Immigrants Who Present a Risk to the United States Labor Market During the Economic Recovery Following the 2019 Novel Coronavirus Outbreak). On the surface, this proclamation is detrimental to our ability to bring in the much-needed skilled workers to Guam for our construction projects, but it also provides opportunities to hire and train a local workforce for these needed positions.
I believe that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused many people to lose their jobs or work reduced hours, especially those workers in the tourism industry. One may think that these people can be readily available to work in construction because of the severe shortage in our industry. However, as we have mentioned numerous times before, construction work requires skills and a willingness to work in some harsh conditions like heat and humidity. Not everyone starts to swing a hammer and call themselves a carpenter, it takes a few years of related classroom instruction and experience on the job. With these number of unemployed or underemployed workers in our community, the government can best serve this demographic by providing them the tools to get skilled or reskilled in order to work for an industry that is so desperately in need of these workers, but not without developing these skills and a willingness to do hot and hard work. I am sure there are federal grants available for this through the Guam Department of Labor.
Contractors do not just hire anyone off the streets, we are looking for people with the right attitude and skill to participate as a construction craft professional. For those companies that are seeking to hire more local workers, this is the opportunity to do so. But do not hire for the sake of having a warm body on the jobsite, make it count. Hire and make a commitment to train these workers. I hear all kinds of excuses of why companies do not train their employees. One of the classic ones is “I don’t train my employees, because they might leave my company for another”, but you have to ask “what if you don’t train them and they stay?”, the inference being the company will end up with second rate employees which will be bad for the company in the long term. Training gives your employees value today and your company value tomorrow. British business magnate, investor, author and former philanthropist, Sir Richard Branson was quoted as saying “Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don't want to”. An investment in your workforce is an investment in your business. as Zig Ziglar also mentions, “You don’t build a business, you build people, and then people build the business”.
While the challenges of hiring a local skilled workforce is real, let us look at the positive side of all the restrictive rules and regulations, and yes even the Presidential Proclamation that temporarily suspends the worker visas for H1B, H2B and others which is the opportunity to build a local workforce from those unfortunate to have lost their jobs or have had their hours reduced because of the CIVID-19 pandemic. Let us build Guam again and let us build it with a local workforce. Let’s get skilled Guam!
Dångkulu na si Yu’us ma’åse’
James A. Martinez President Guam Contractors Association
Guam Contractors Association
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