The elections that were suspended at 12 o’clock last Wednesday were reschedule for Monday, October 20, 2008 from 2:30 to 4pm, 1,058 teachers were not able to able to vote last Wednesday. The voting will take place at the same schools of the last time.
Tuesday October 21 will be the last date of voting. The final route will include Vieques, Culebras, Bayamón and Naranjito. La Junta de Relaciones de Trabajo also indicated today that the counting of the votes will be held on Thursday October 23, from 8:30 am until the count is finished. Personnel of La Junta will do the counting with the presence of SPM and the Department of Education as observers. They will also permit a limited quantity of outside observers to be in the room (limited seats).
Up to now the percent of teacher participation is around 85% the numbers of teachers who are permanent or in probation is around 36,000. This means that around 31,000 teachers will vote. To win you must have at least 50% + 1(around 16,000) of all the votes. We believe that we are winning 65% to 35%. It is not difficult to win because we have around 12,000 hard core members of FMPR (that are paying voluntary dues to our union as a Bonafide organization), there are also thousands of teachers who are PNP (rival of PPD) who are voting NO for ideological reasons and there are thousands of teachers who do not want any type of union in the school system. So if SPM wins it will be due to a massive fraud of the government in combination with key members of La Junta de Relaciones del Trabajo. They have the keys to vault where the votes are being sent to. Also the ballots are simple papers that didn’t have signatures of the functionaries that were present in the voting sites. So his is a possibility that we have to consider.
1 comment:
The FMPR won the vote!! According to press accounts of today's ballot count, 18,123 teachers voted "no" while 14,675 voted in favor of the SEIU-affiliated union that's waged a nearly year-long effort to raid the FMPR. What a "David & Goliath" story. SEIU seemed to pull out all stops in its effort to win, including using the power of the Governor's office to decertify the FMPR as well as spending huge amounts of money on PR consultants, polling, focus groups, full-page newspaper advertisements, radio, TV, websites, etc. SEIU reportedly sent organizers from across the US to Puerto Rico in an attempt to win the vote. Congratulations to the dedicated teachers who prevailed against this effort! And shame on SEIU, Dennis Rivera, Andy Stern and other SEIU leaders for trying to raid an effective, democratic, grassroots union. They need to be held accountable by SEIU's members for this shameful effort.
http://www.elnuevodia.com/diario/noticia/puertoricohoy/noticias/derrotado_el_spm/478345
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