LABOUR-PUERTO RICO: Union Piracy in the Making?

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Carmelo Ruiz

SAN JUAN, May 22 1998 (IPS) - When earlier this year the Puerto Rican legislature passed a law that made it legal for all public employees to organise labour unions and collectively bargain with the government, some unions were euphoric.

However, other labour organisations denounced it as a farce and as a step backward for public sector workers. They see it as a neoliberal attack on Puerto Rican labour spearheaded by unions controlled by the American Federation of Labour (AFL-CIO).

Its supporters call it the unionisation law. But its opponents refuse to call it that, and instead refer to it by its number: law 45.

One of the groups opposed to the new law is the Brotherhood of Social Services Workers (HTSS), which represents employees of the government’s Family Affairs Department.

According to HTSS executive director Luis Pedraza, the new law criminalises strikes. Furthermore, it defines strikes very broadly to include any absence from work, he says.

“The syndicate that does a press conference in a week day during working hours is decertified, because under the new law even that act can be defined as a strike,” says the HTSS chief.

Federico Torres-Montalvo, leader of the Puerto Rican Workers’ Central Union, claims that with Law 45, “unions can be decertified if the public employees that they represent are perceived to have decreased their productivity”.

A government agency chief can have a union decertified if he claims that a collective bargaining process is undermining the agency’s performance.

Pedraza claims that even solidarity among public sector workers is criminalised under law 45:

“Suppose the (government-owned) Puerto Rico Telephone Company (PRTC) workers’ union asked fellow workers at the Family Affairs Department for solidarity during a strike or 24-hour stoppage, HTSS would be decertified if it decided to help the PRTC union,” says Torres- Montalvo.

If so, an action like the Oct. 1 1997 nationwide work stoppage would be illegal if it were to be repeated now under the new law. On that date, Puerto Rican labour unions shut down the country in protest against the government’s plan to privatise the PRTC.

Pedraza also points out that unions that strike will not only be decertified, but can also be fined as much as 10,000 dollars. The leaders of those decertified unions are prohibited from working for other unions for up to five years.

Other unions opposed to the new law include the Puerto Rico Teachers’ Federation and the General Council of Workers. Leftist pro-independence organisations, like the Socialist Front and the New Independence Movement are also opposed.

Supporters of the new labour law agree that it has its shortcomings, but that nevertheless it is a positive step forward for public sector workers.

Carlos Picart, of United Public Workers (SPU), is optimistic about the new law.

“We interpret this law as an overall increase in the rights of workers. It does not take away from us any of the rights we had under the previous labour law. Under the new unionisation law, we can now negotiate salaries and working conditions, which we weren’t allowed to do before,” he says.

Picart heads the Family Department chapter of SPU. Organising workers in that government agency makes SPU a rival syndicate and direct competitor of HTSS.

Jose Rodriguez, secretary-treasurer of the Puerto Rico National Union of Health Workers (UNTS), also supports the new law.

“It makes it easier for public employees to organise into unions, and extends that right to all public sector workers. In the past, a government agency chief could walk out of a negotiation with a union if he felt like it. But that changes with the unionisation law,” says Rodriquez.

SPU and UNTS not only support the new law. They were also instrumental in getting it approved by the legislature.

Both Picart and Rodriguez believe the new labour law can be improved by lobbying the legislators.

They strongly believe that by establishing a low-key dialogue with lawmakers and setting up pragmatic alliances they can achieve more than by relying on the old tactics of confrontation and protest.

“Instead of carrying picket signs and walking around in circles chanting slogans, we go and talk to the legislators in their offices. Organised labour must participate in the legislative process because that’s where the labour laws are made,” says Picart.

SPU, founded in 1995, is the Puerto Rican chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), which has a total of 1.3 million members. It is currently organising workers in other Puerto Rico government departments.

Since 1989 UNTS has been affiliated with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which represents 1.1 million workers in and out of the United States.

Both AFSCME and SEIU are members of the AFL-CIO. Other AFL-CIO member unions in Puerto Rico include the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the International Longshoremen’s Association and the Seafarers’ International Union.

Pedraza and other labour leaders claim that the AFL-CIO is using the local AFSCME and SEIU chapters to push aside locally-based unions like HTSS so they can take over all of Puerto Rico’s labour movement.

That way, they say, the AFL-CIO stands to rake in millions of dollars of members dues. Pedraza calls this ‘union piracy’ and ‘union neoliberalism’.