BY RON RICHARDS
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Thousands of members of the Electrical and Irrigation Workers Union (UTIER) walked off the job here December 27 and marched on the governor's mansion, La Fortaleza. The 24-hour work stoppage was in response to contract violations by management. UTIER is the largest union at the government-owned Electric Power Authority (AEE).
Workers picketed their workplaces at the 7:00 a.m. shift change and then drove to the central offices of the AEE in cars and chartered buses. By 11:30 a.m., several thousand unionists had gathered. They spent the next several hours marching to the residence of Governor Pedro Rosselló in Old San Juan.
Leonardo Miranda, a lineman in Arecibo, said the most important issue was that the company wanted to change the health plan, from Blue Cross to PCA, without a vote by the union membership as required by the contract.
Proposed changes in work shifts and the use of subcontractors to do the work of UTIER members were also reasons for the strike, reported Juan Guerra, a heavy equipment operator in the Río Piedras section of San Juan. The AEE wants to change many workers from a Monday- to-Friday schedule to two shifts, one working Sunday to Thursday and another working Tuesday to Saturday.
Unionists passed out leaflets to motorists on the busy Ponce de León Avenue that passes in front of the AEE headquarters. The leaflet cited the contract violations and also warned of the government's intention to privatize the electric utility, that is, to allow capitalist investors to operate privately owned power plants. The union said that private owners of the utility would carry out thousands of layoffs, increase rates by 25 percent, and allow greater pollution by the power plants.
Joining the UTIER workers were family members and several members of the Brotherhood of Non-Teaching Employees at the University of Puerto Rico campus in Bayamón. Workers driving telephone company and propane gas delivery trucks honked in solidarity as they passed by.
Meanwhile, David Noriega, a leader of the Puerto Rican Independence Party and member of the island's legislature, expressed support for the UTIER work stoppage and said he would investigate whether the AEE was truthful about its claim that there will be no rate increases in case of privatization.
At a literature table set up in front of the AEE offices, a supporter of Pathfinder Press sold $40 worth of books on revolutionary politics to electrical workers and others. The building is on a commercial street that passes through a working-class neighborhood with many immigrants from the Dominican Republic.