Puerto Rico

  • The Vision Thing: Keeping Union Reform on Track
    Jane Slaughter
    Apr 27 2012 - 4:17pm

    When reformers take over at the union hall, they can make remarkable changes, transforming dormant locals into ones with proud members who put management on notice. But some stumble. What happens?

  • Student Occupation, Teacher Firings Roil Puerto Rico

    As the world watched the jubilant crowds in Tahrir Square, few were aware that another hard-won victory for justice and democracy was in the making in Puerto Rico, half a world away. Students occupying their campus since December to protest a "special fee" forced the resignation of the university president and the withdrawal of police.

  • Puerto Rican Students’ Shutdown of Universities Nears Fifth Week

    As the sun rose on April 21, hundreds of students approached the main gate to the University of Puerto Rico’s historic Río Piedras campus and chained it shut. Thus began an occupation that has now spread to all 11 campuses of the UPR system and has become the longest-lasting strike action of any kind in this U.S. island colony in years.

  • Tens of Thousands March Against Puerto Rico Layoffs
    José A. Laguarta Ramírez
    Oct 23 2009 - 12:20pm

    Tens of thousands of workers were joined by supporters on October 15 in Puerto Rico, marching through San Juan to protest the layoffs of nearly 25,000 public employees.

  • Puerto Rico to Lay Off 17,000; Splintered Labor Movement Scrambles to Respond
    José A. Laguarta Ramírez
    Oct 6 2009 - 4:38pm

    Governor Luis Fortuño announced in late September that nearly 17,000 public employees in Puerto Rico will lose their jobs by November, in addition to the nearly 8,000 laid off over the summer.

  • Day 1 - Teachers meet with SEIU members

    Tonight the Puerto Rican teachers held a "charla" or chat with SEIU members interested in learning more about their struggle, and the conflict between SEIU and their union the FMPR. I couldn't be there but Labor Notes Policy Committee member Steve Early was on the scene. From Steve's reports, the FMPR event sounded about as far from the highly scripted, stage-managed SEIU convention as you could get.

  • Puerto Rican Teachers Challenge the Purple Lockdown

    The Puerto Rican convention center hosting the Service Employees International Union’s big confab is kind of an eerie cross between Superman’s Fortress of Solitude and a prison in some isolated part of rural California.

  • Teachers Strike Stops Classes in Puerto Rico

    José A. Laguarta Ramírez

    Striking members of Puerto Rico’s teachers union, the Federación de Maestros de Puerto Rico (FMPR) voted to end their strike March 5. Lasting two weeks, the teachers’ strike paralyzed classes at most of the island’s 1,500 public schools, thanks in large part to the hundreds of thousands of parents who kept their children home from school. . . .


    Yes
  • SEIU to Raid Union Representing 40,000 Teachers in Puerto Rico

    César Rosado Marzán

    Dennis Rivera, chair of the national SEIU Healthcare union, announced December 28 that an organization of teachers and school principals in Puerto Rico would affiliate with SEIU and seek to challenge the incumbent Federación de Maestros de Puerto Rico (FMPR).


    Yes