LABOUR-PUERTO RICO: So Just What is Behind This Law?

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Carmelo Ruiz

SAN JUAN, May 25 1998 (IPS) - For some in the labour movement in this Caribbean island it is a gigantic step forward, a historic achievement, while for others it is one of the most restrictive labour laws ever passed in this country.

At the heart of the contention which now seems to be dividing the union movement here is the recent passage of a Unionisation Law which, among other things, gives public sector employees, numbering some 234,000, the right to join trade unions.

One of the most vexed clauses of the Law, however, is that it prohibits strikes, but supporters, dismiss this saying its shortcomings can be addressed with eventual amendments.

Opponents allege that the American Federation of Labour (AFL-CIO) will use the new labour law to push aside local unions that organise public sector workers.

Indeed, the unions that led the lobbying campaign for the new law are affiliated to AFL-CIO member unions, like the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

A total of 31 Puerto Rican unions are AFL-CIO affiliates, representing 50,000 workers.

The Unionisation Law’s opponents say that the American unions are only in it for the money. They claim that if every public employee in Puerto Rico were a member of an AFL-CIO union and paid 10 dollars in monthly dues, the AFL-CIO would stand to make over 28 million dollars a year in dues.

Political commentator and former Puerto Rico Socialist Party head, Carlos Gallisa says that the political clout that the AFL-CIO member unions exert in Washington should not be underestimated. “AFSCME is the labour union that gave the most money to the Democratic party, its congressional representatives and both of Bill Clinton’s presidential campaigns,” he says.

In 1997, the clout and political muscle of the labour federation was instrumental in defeating Clinton’s proposal for ‘fast-track’ trade legislation.

Opponents of the Unionisation Law claim that it is part of a secret deal between Puerto Rico’s Governor, Pedro Rossello and the AFL-CIO to make Puerto Rico into a state of the American union. Rossello currently heads the US Democrat Governors’ Association.

According to Popular Democratic Party (PDP) president Anibal Acevedo- Vila,

AFSCME is lobbying the US Congress in favour of a Puerto Rico plebiscite bill. In exchange for that, Rossello pushed the Unionisation Bill, alleges the PDP president.

The PDP supports the commonwealth status.

The plebiscite bill, sponsored by Alaska representative Don Young, calls for a plebiscite later this year, in which Puerto Ricans will choose between statehood, independence or the current commonwealth status. On Mar. 4 it passed the House by a one-vote margin and now awaits approval by the Senate.

The PDP is boycotting the plebiscite bill because it claims that it is prejudiced against commonwealth and biased in favour of statehood. Part of the independence movement is also boycotting it for its alleged colonial nature.

“Rossello has no right to use unionisation as a quid pro quo. That shows his desperation and lack of scruples. He’s trying to buy statehood,” says Acevedo- Vila.

Acevedo-Vila and Unionisation Law foes point out that in 1995 Rossello spoke at an AFL-CIO meeting in the US and asked for support for Puerto Rico’s statehood. They also point out that AFSCME president Gerald McEntee was next to the Governor when he presented the bill to the Puerto Rico legislature in 1997. McEntee was formerly vice-president of the AFL-CIO.

Rossello, legislators of his New Progressive Party, and the leaders of United Public Workers (SPU), the Puerto Rico AFSCME affiliate, emphatically deny that any such lobbying was, or is taking place. SPU members belong to all political ideologies, say the organisation’s leaders.

“AFSCME takes no position on the issue of Puerto Rico’s status. The members of SPU, which belong to all political parties, would not permit such an imposition,” says SPU executive director Jose La Luz.

“During our campaign for the Unionisation Law, our members organised themselves by political party and legislative district and went on to lobby their respective political parties and legislators in favour of the bill. If we aligned ourselves with a political party we’d lose credibility,” says SPU press officer Brenda Vargas.

When Labour Education Institute chairman Carlos Quiros published an article about alleged AFSCME and AFL-CIO links to the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in a local newspaper, SPU responded with a long and detailed rebuttal.

SPU denied any links to the CIA and made it clear that there is a definite difference between an organisation being infiltrated and subverted by US intelligence, as has been documented in the case of American organised labour, and being an actual CIA front, as Quiros alleges.

It also pointed out that the Puerto Rico Workers’ Central (CPT), a leading opponent of the Unionisation Law, is affiliated to the Latin American Workers’ Central (CLAT), which has been widely reported to be used by the CIA and conservative interests to neutralise progressive and militant labour activism.

According to SPU’s response to Quiros, AFSCME was a vocal opponent of former US president Ronald Reagan’s Central America policy while CPT was issuing resolutions condemning the Sandinistas, the Salvadoran FMLN and Grenada’s New Jewel Movement, and accusing a rival syndicate, the General Union of Workers, of being a communist organisation.

SPU also noted that the Puerto Rico Federation of Teachers, another opponent of the Unionisation Law, is affiliated to the American Federation of Teachers, which accused AFSCME of being communist-controlled for criticising US intervention in Central America.