Vol. 73/No. 42      November 2, 2009

This second round of layoffs was announced at the end of September and will go into effect in November. With some exceptions, everyone working for the government with less than 13.5 years seniority will lose their job.

The layoffs were authorized by the “Fiscal State of Emergency Law,” known as Law 7, which was signed March 9. The law also freezes the wages of government employees, tears up their union contracts, and increases some sales taxes.

Marchers were also protesting a law they say would allow the government to privatize many government services.

With 201,300 workers, the Puerto Rican government employed about 20 percent of the island’s workforce before the latest layoffs. The official unemployment rate in September was 16.4 percent. This is the highest rate for September since 1993, when it was 17 percent.

The marchers, mostly government employees or students, started from eight different points around San Juan and converged on the Plaza las Américas, a major banking and commercial district. Around 50,000 protesters packed Roosevelt Avenue, the main thoroughfare of the central Hato Rey financial district in San Juan, reported Reuters. There were also contingents of truck drivers organized by the Teamsters union. Many workers from private businesses that were not on strike waved in solidarity with the marchers as they passed by.

In a failed attempt to limit participation in the march, the University of Puerto Rico closed the week of the strike. In spite of this, students and workers from the university’s 11 campuses marched from the Río Piedras main campus. Large contingents came from regional campuses, including Humacao and Aguadilla.

The strike involved mostly government workers and students. It was backed by every union federation on the island, including the AFL-CIO; Change to Win; the Coordinadora Sindical, the main coalition of independent unions; and the Puerto Rican Teachers Federation.

All of Puerto Rico for Puerto Rico, a coalition that includes several unions and leaders of various churches, organized the main stage at the rally at the end of the march.

A separate speakers platform was set up by the Broad Front for Solidarity and Struggle, which includes many of the independent unions.

The Department of Education reported that 53 percent of its 40,000 teachers and 98 percent of students were absent.

The Puerto Rico Independence Party and the Popular Democratic Party (PPD), the largest opposition party in the Puerto Rican Congress, also joined the march. The PPD has called for cutting the workweek and wages of government workers instead of layoffs.

Prior to the strike, the government’s chief of staff, Marcos Rodríguez-Ema, warned union truck drivers not to block operations at the ports. “Such actions are clearly defined in federal law as terrorism,” he stated.

While most private businesses and the international airport were open, many dockworkers, who do not work for the government, joined the strike. The day after the march the island’s Port Authority filed a lawsuit against unions at the port, including the Union of Dockworkers of Puerto Rico, affiliated with the International Longshoremen’s Association in the United States. Port officials charged that the unions had organized an illegal conspiracy that interfered with interstate commerce. The lawsuit says that the Port Authority lost $1 million and that the protest affected national security.

Puerto Rico governor Luis Fortuño claims the firings are necessary to help close a $3.2 billion budget gap. The day of the strike he said the only alternative to the massive layoffs would be to close down the government. Fortuño said cutting hours and workers’ wages would be a worse solution.

The government of Puerto Rico pays out more than $768 million a year just in interest payments to wealthy bondholders of public debt. They will still get their money. The Puerto Rican government is a leading issuer of tax-free bonds in the United States. Fortuño told Reuters he was concerned that Puerto Rico’s bond rating could be downgraded.

Puerto Rico has been a U.S. colony since 1898, when U.S. troops wrested control of the island from Spain. Residents of Puerto Rico are subject to U.S. laws, courts, and military service. They are U.S. citizens, but have no vote in presidential elections.

U.S. companies operating in Puerto Rico get huge tax exemptions and duty free access to the United States. The minimum wage in Puerto Rico varies by industry and can be as low as $4.25 an hour.

Union leaders say that if the layoffs are not reversed they will plan another national work stoppage, possibly lasting several days.
 
 
Related articles:
On the Picket Line
Quebec meat packers strike against concessions
Washington teachers, students fight firings
Nursing home workers demand contract  
 
 
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