The strike, provoked by the management’s decision to cancel payments into the union-run health-care fund and set up a privately run medical plan instead, was a major battle in which the government and AAA management attempted to deal major blows to the union.

In the end, the workers held off the attempt to substantially weaken the union, and to eliminate the union-run health-care fund and cut back a series of other funds administered by the union. At a press conference announcing the agreement, UIA president Héctor René Lugo said the major success of the union in the strike was “to have retained the gains and social benefits reached over the last 40 years.”

As the strike unfolded, the AAA management leveled charges of sabotage against the striking workers. Press reports also claimed the strikers had little public support. FBI and IRS agents raided the union’s offices and homes of union leaders, and 11 UIA leaders were later indicted on tax evasion charges.

Despite this onslaught and the claim by the AAA management that they had made a “final offer,” workers stood firm. The union did not accede to demands by the bosses that they return to work accepting this offer, or to the pleas from Puerto Rico’s governor that they end the strike without a contract and instead continue negotiations after getting back on the job.

The water authority’s management responded to the refusal to return to work under the “final offer” by threatening on December 27 to begin permanently replacing striking workers. The UIA leadership and officers from a range of other unions responded that they would organize major work stoppages across the island if the bosses brought in scabs.

In that context, the governor appointed a “committee of dialogue” composed of other union leaders to negotiate an offer with representatives of Puerto Rico’s government, including the current and former labor secretaries. Both the union and AAA accepted this proposal. The labor representatives on the committee that negotiated the contract that water workers finally accepted included leaders of the electrical workers union (UTIER), the Teamsters, and the Puerto Rican Workers Federation. The agreement expires January 2009. It includes $1,800 in retroactive pay for each worker, and a raise beginning December 2004 of $100 a month. AAA management was pushing to hold off any wage raise until December 2005.

Under the new contract, workers will have the choice of the privately run health plan of Triple S or the union-run medical plan. The UIA health fund will now be administered by a board with two union representatives, two management representatives, and a president who is neither from the union or the company. AAA will continue paying $355 per month for each worker into the health plan. The agreement also includes maintaining under union control some $200,000 a month in funds for legal assistance, disability pay, retirement pensions, and scholarships and loans for workers. The AAA management will be able to audit these funds. The number of union delegates allowed under the new pact is 100, down from the previous 128. The bosses had sought a much bigger reduction.

The goals of Puerto Rico’s rulers in the attempt to push back the workers were aptly described by John Marino, the managing editor of the San Juan Star. Marino stated in a recent column that AAA president Jorge Rodríguez “has rightly insisted on ‘take-backs’ of out-of-control benefits.” He continued, “Outrageous union benefits and Byzantine restrictions on job classifications and worker scheduling are a big part of the reason why the water utility is such a mess.” Another problem, he said, is the fact that “the government has also been unwilling to take unpopular but necessary moves such as charging for water the true cost of producing it.”

In another development, after nearly two months of recounting votes, Puerto Rico’s electoral commission certified December 28 Anibal Acevedo Vila as the winner in the election for governor of the island. Acevedo Vila, of the Popular Democratic Party, supports maintaining the commonwealth status of Puerto Rico, under which Washington has kept the Caribbean nation as a direct colony. His main opponent, Pedro Roselló, who served governor from 1993 to 2001, wanted to turn Puerto Rico into the 51st U.S. state.  
 
 
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