Puerto Rico: Students, Educators and Other Workers Fill the Streets

Picket with a dual purpose

Fortuño and repudiate support the strike in the UPR

· Photogallery

· Video: Fill the street

· Video: Fourth day of strike in the UPR

· Video: Protest Music

Protesters of all ages and various causes took Ponce de Leon Avenue to protest the Governor.

By Gary E. Alvarado León /galvarado@elnuevodia.com

While Gov. Luis Fortuño yesterday offered his second budget message, dozens of unions, civic and student, among others, gathered in front of the main gates of Rio Piedras campus of the University of Puerto Rico (UPR), to repudiate economic policies of the current administration and at the same time supporting the demands of university strike.

From 4:00 pm, the rails of the Ponce de Leon Avenue began to fill with people of all ages, to the point that the road was closed to traffic both locally and the collective.

The demonstrations, in which reigned quietly began when four students were thrown flower petals 12 policemen of the Tactical Operations Unit who provided security at the gates. Subsequently, two other students stood in front of two separate feeders such agents with dog food.

To the beat of a batucada, who arrived accompanied by mosquitoes and heads, the picket line was formed and immediately began to rumble with him as "Workers and students united and forward", "The student is cansao of this abuse descarao" and "from within and we'll give out candle."

The parade of greetings and messages began shortly before 6:00 pm.Among the most prominent was the environmental planner and member of the Coalition All Puerto Rico by Puerto Rico, Jose "Tato" Rivera Santana, who called the words of fortune as a "contramensaje."

"The real message I have given the students, who have raised the banner of justice and defense of public education," he said.

Also, Bishop Juan Vera, also of the Coalition, said the Governor's speech was "The message can not."

"(The Message) is full of arguments to justify the crisis and their poor choices. One doctor who has not committed to prescribe bitter medicine for workers, poor communities and students, but given the rich sweet country, "outlined the religious.

Labor leaders, including President of the Union of Workers of the Electric Industry and Irrigation (UTIER), Angel Figueroa Jaramillo and Luis Pedraza Leduc, spokeswoman for the Broad Front for Solidarity and Struggle, agreed that the university "have been a professor" of a struggle of people who should be emulated by the organizations they represent.

"Students have said that the only alternative that has a people under a fascist government is organized street fighting," said Figueroa Jaramillo.

"This struggle of the students raises the need for unity and communication over the differences," said Pedraza Leduc.

Meanwhile, Rafael Feliciano, president of the Federation of Teachers, said that students are charting the right path to fight the "anti-labor management" Fortuño.

The former senator Independence Party (PIP), María de Lourdes Santiago, said, meanwhile, that no one can take the message of hope after Fortuño.

As an option to bring more receipts to the Government without having to lay off public employees, Santiago recommended to implement a surcharge "which is not confiscatory" to foreign companies, who continue to receive "preferential treatment."

In the squad also attended the Coalition Against the Death Penalty in the context of the 81 anniversary of the abolition of the death penalty in Puerto Rico

The activity ended at about 9:00 pm.

Puerto Rico General Strike: Videos

There are three videos and a foto essay after the two fotos and intro.

1. Puerto Rico was paralyzed on the 15th of October.
All labor unions united behind the call for a strike protesting Law 7 which has been used by the governor Luis Fortuño to fire over 22,000 workers this year and break all union contracts with public workers.
There were 10 feeder marches to the huge Plaza Las Americas shopping mall which was forced to close for the day.
Organizers estimated more than 200,000 persons took part in the rally.
But thousands of non unionized workers from the public and private sectors also obeyed the call for a strike.
There is a never before expressed national sense of disgust with the governor who demonstrated such disdain for the suffering of so many people.

2. Puerto Rico is also a colony of the US, invaded in 1898 and the crisis is a colonial and capitalist crisis.
Union members were joined by many community organizations, the lawyer's bar, student organizations, religious groups and all the opposition political organizations, bourgeois and socialist.

3. As Luis Pedraza Leduc, spokesperson for the Frente Amplio de Solidaridad y Lucha states in the first video, even the financial district came to a halt. San Juan and many small towns came to a standstill. This labor coalition represents the Teachers Federation of Puerto Rico, the public sector electric company workers in the UTIER, the public sector water authority workers in the UIAAA, university workers, many other unions and community and socialist organizations.
There were no classes and many shoping malls outside of the San Juan area were or empty. There were also protests throughout the country. And the union representing thousands of truck drivers also heeded the call and mobilized.
Luis Fortuño is a pro statehood governor. But thousands of members of his party, workers who were fired or relatives and friends of fired workers also took part in the strike.
FASyL unions insisted the protest be at Plaza Las Americas since it was a symbol of the power of the private sector which is
masterminding the governor's anti labor policies.

There also seems to be a general feeling that a one day strike is not enough and that the call by the Frente Amplio de Solidaridad y Lucha for an indefinite strike needs to be implemented. Thousands cheered when a huge a banner calling for "Revolution Now" was placed high above the protest site by well known activist Tito Kayak. This banner appears in one of the videos.


Governor Fortuño es called a Nazi.



Lawyers Bar (Colegio de Abogados) also backed the strike.

1. Video of Ffrente Amplio de Solidaridad y Lucha Luis Pedraza is interviewed before a feeder march takes off.
http://www.wapa.tv/noticias/locales/mucha-militancia-en-la-milla-de-oro/20091015094012

2. Video of the protest site.
http://www.wapa.tv/noticias/locales/concentracion-plaza-las-americas/20091015113845

3. Video of hhundreds of students blocking traffic on the main highway to Plaza Las Americas after the protest. A nasty clash with cops was avioded when the former president of the UTIER, electricity company workers' union, Riardo Santos, and former political prisoner Rafael Cancel Miranda who participated in the 1954 shooting of the US Congress intervened with the police and students.
http://www.wapa.tv/noticias/locales/universitarios-paralizan-expreso/20091016004151

4. Foto essay of the day's events.
http://www.telemundopr.com/

Puerto Rican Teachers: "The Long Way is the Short Way"

Puerto Rican Teachers: "The Long Way is the Short Way"
Labor Notes Staff, February 26, 2009

Teachers in Puerto Rico defied a strike ban and embarked on an all-out fight for the life of their union in late February one year ago. The 10-day walk-out set in motion months of turmoil for the 40,000-member Federacion de Maestros de Puerto Rico. The government decertified the FMPR as punishment for the strike, and the Service Employees attempted a raid. How has their union survived? . . . ..
Story Body:
FMPR.270
Last February, nearly 25,000 teachers closed Puerto Rico's schools with a 10-day strike. The strike and ensuing fights peaked decades of slowly building momentum for a reform caucus.

One year ago, in late February, teachers in Puerto Rico defied a strike ban and embarked on an all-out fight for the life of their union.

The 10-day walk-out, which capped 27 months of fruitless negotiations, set in motion months of turmoil for the 40,000-member Federacion de Maestros de Puerto Rico. The government decertified the FMPR as punishment for the strike, and the Service Employees attempted a raid. In late October teachers were asked to vote between SEIU and “no union,” as the government barred FMPR from the ballot.

Responding to a campaign from what they saw as their legitimate union, teachers rejected SEIU’s bid by a 10-point margin, with 55 percent voting for “no union.”

Today FMPR continues to operate as a non-majority union—just as it did before 1998, when public sector collective bargaining was legalized on the island.

The teachers union has been led since 2003 by a reform caucus called CODEMI (Commitment, Democracy, Militancy). For decades the caucus built credibility by slowly nurturing leaders and encouraging action on the local level. Labor Notes spoke with FMPR President Rafael Feliciano Hernandez and Vice President Maria Melendez in New York to see how they did it.

Labor Notes: SEIU poured tremendous resources into this election, millions of dollars, even putting ads on TV. How were you able to win?

FMPR: SEIU spent between $22 and $24 million. We spent $65,000. You can have a lot of money for propaganda, but if you don’t have links with the local leadership, with teachers in the schools, you don’t really have the strength to destroy our union.

I think that the 2008 strike is very important to understanding the “no” vote. For over a year the union developed this strike, largely through volunteers. Our union is based in voluntary work.

We don’t have money but we have leaders at the grassroots of the union, and we have relationships with the community. SEIU and the government thought that our union was a traditional bureaucratic union, but they ran full-speed into a brick wall. That wall was the people, and their commitment to education and to the union.

Something else that helped us is the fact that when you got to the balloting center SEIU had lots of staff there. But they were not teachers. They didn’t know our reality. They could not respond to the questions of the teachers.

LN: Since the 1960s public sector workers have been able to organize non-majority unions. How did you build a local structure?

FMPR: We’ve had a caucus inside the union since 1971. In the ‘80s our caucus targeted the development of local unions, each about 400 to 500 teachers. This is big, but it still permits direct contact between the local leadership and teachers in the schools.

Even when the union was controlled by a bureaucratic leadership, we still had space in the local union, an autonomous space to develop a rank-and-file leadership.

In our union the locals have lots of autonomy. They can call strikes, develop their own educational workshops, have their own newspapers. They meet with their bosses and Department of Education officials. Sometimes they negotiate local agreements. And the local unions are very democratic. The teachers directly elect the leaders every two years.

It’s difficult. Some local unions are strong, some of them are weak. But when we developed the strike, in every place that we have a strong local union, we had a strong strike.

At the top, people don’t have direct contact. You need local leadership to push, to maintain accountability, to create checks and balances.

Sometimes the national leadership loses their way. The local structure permits the rank-and-file leadership to continue. We can be in the newspaper everyday, but if the local union doesn’t have a real presence, then the union is weak.

LN: The community’s been very important in your struggles. How are they involved?

FMPR: In our strike, half of the teachers were on strike, but something like 95 percent of the schools were closed. That’s because in many schools, the parents and students struck. They become part of the process.

We’ve been building this relationship with the community since 2003, using many little strikes and struggles to support parents’ issues, like smaller classes, asbestos removal in schools, and water fountains and supplies in schools.

Through all this we’ve developed an internal debate, and had many discussions. Some of the teachers don’t want to support parents. They think they are an elite. Some of the teachers don’t want to fight back. They think the union should be a service union. But that is part of the struggle, and in the process of the strike we changed the mentality. That is one of the most important things about the strike.

A second thing to stress is that this was a women’s strike. Most of the strikers, something like 75 percent, were women who have to fight with their husbands before fighting against their bosses. That is also an important part of changing Puerto Rican society.

LN: How did you keep people committed to changing the union?

FMPR: It started when all the militant, pro-democratic members formed the CODEMI caucus (Commitment, Democracy, and Militancy). We developed a program, which was important because when somebody got elected they had to work to achieve our program. In the 1980s the caucus started by pushing amendments to the union’s by-laws to develop local unions. We concentrated our work in the local level.

Our caucus worked with a long-term view. For 10 years nobody was elected onto the national leadership of the union. We lost two national elections before our victory in 2003. But the group stayed alive, working every day. It didn’t disappear when the election was finished.

Then, just before the election of 2003 our health insurance fund went bankrupt. The leadership lost something like $43 million. It was a real crisis, and in that moment people decided now is the time to support CODEMI.

Early on, we passed an important amendment that our organizers must be elected teachers. Before that, organizers were selected by the leadership. When we made this change, that staff and organizers must be teachers on leave of absence working for the union—but elected locally, that was very important: The national executive committee had direct contact with the base.

The organizer has to be accountable to the locals, and at the same time the president doesn’t have the power to dismiss the organizers.

Sometimes an organizer doesn’t do his work. That is very difficult for us, because we cannot throw out organizers. We have to wait until his local and his people understand that he is not doing the work and they make a move.

If we don’t have a real democratic process, then everything can be torn down. That has happened many times. Democracy is difficult, but we don’t have another option.

LN: How do you keep yourself honest?

FMPR: We don’t ask our members to do anything that we don’t do. We go to picket lines and sometimes the police arrest us. People have to see us working, too, not just showing up right before a march begins or the cameras start rolling. That is how people develop confidence in you, and in themselves.

We are also respectful of our opposition. When we run a meeting, people get up and say what they want. They have the right to do that. That way people learn how to work with differences and to understand that a different point of view is good, because that is the core of the living organization. The opposition makes us more productive.
Source URL:
http://labornotes.org/node/2125

DAVID vs. GOLIATH: HOW The Puerto Rico Teacher's Union WON A BATTLE.....

FMPR, SEIU & US LABOR
DAVID vs. GOLIATH: HOW The Puerto Rico Teacher's Union WON A BATTLE FOR DIGNITY, DEMOCRACY & QUALITY EDUCATION AGAINST THE BOSS, THE GOVERNMENT & ITS US LABOR ALLY
Friday, Nov. 21, 6:30-9:30pm
NYU SILVER Bldg - ROOM 714
50 WASHINGTON PLACE
--trains to 8 St/Astor Pl; W. 4 St./Washington Square--
SPEAKERS:

* Rafael Feliciano, FMPR President
* Mark Brenner, Labor Notes
* Lisa North, ICE (Independent Community of Educators)-UFT
* Marvin Holland, TWU (Transit Workers Union) Local 100 R&F Activist

A powerful coalition consisting of the Government, Boss, Courts--and a US Union that spent millions--couldn't defeat the teachers of Puerto Rico, whose union stood firm defending quality public education, labor justice and union democracy in a stunning election victory in October of 2008.
What are the implications for other labor activists and the US Labor Movement as a whole?

Sponsored by: Federación de Maestros de Puerto Rico/FMPR Support Committee-NY
fmpr.support.committee.ny@gmail.com http://fmprsupportcommittee.tumblr.com


some background:
Puerto Rico teachers defeat SEIU raid
Excerpts selected from an article by Brian Cruz, a rank-and-file member of SEIU Local 1021 in the Bay Area.--Oct 31, 2008



PUBLIC SCHOOL teachers in Puerto Rico overwhelmingly voted October 23 to reject representation by the Puerto Rico Teachers Union (SPM)--a union affiliated with the U.S.-based Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Those who voted "no" to the SPM weren't voting against having a union, however. In effect, they were voting in favor of their current union, the Teachers Federation of Puerto Rico (FMPR), which was not allowed on the ballot. The 42-year-old FMPR previously had exclusive rights to represent the teachers. However, the FMPR was decertified by an anti-labor government in January 2008 for voting to go on strike. This created an opening for the SEIU to push its affiliate, the SPM.



The cards seemed stacked against the FMPR. Under Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vilá of the Popular Democratic Party (PPD), the Puerto Rican government had been unwilling to agree to a collective bargaining agreement with the teachers. The FMPR sensed an impasse and decided strike for better wages, better conditions at schools for both teachers and students, and a halt to the privatization of the schools through the expansion of charter schools. However, the island's Law 45 prohibits public workers from striking, so the government decertified the FMPR even before the strike began in early February.



More than just a viciously anti-union government was at play here. In the New York Daily News, columnist Juan Gonzalez revealed that Vilá and Dennis Rivera, a top leader of SEIU, had arranged a deal in which SEIU would contribute to Vilá's campaign for re-election if Vilá would support SEIU's attempts to gain representation. The plan for the raid was for Vilá to refuse to negotiate, and then let SEIU run in a representation election. The vehicle for this plan would be the Teachers Association of Puerto Rico (AMPR), which associated with SEIU in late 2007. AMPR is an organization of administrators of the school system, such as principals and regional directors. As such, it can't represent teachers under Law 45, and in practice, never represents the interests of actual teachers in work disputes. So AMPR created SPM, whose general secretary and main spokesperson, Aida Diáz, is also president of AMPR.



While FMPR won widespread support for its strike, AMPR moved to undermine the struggle. It denounced FMPR for striking, then ran uncontested, via SPM and aided by staff and resources of SEIU, for exclusive representation rights. At first, FMPR challenged the decision that it wouldn't be allowed to participate in the election on the grounds that Law 45 had no provision prohibiting decertified unions from participating. FMPR leaders submitted 12,000 teachers' signatures petitioning for their appearance on the ballot--for which only 8,000 signatures are required. Yet the authorities still denied FMPR a place on the ballot. When they realized the unfair election would continue as planned, FMPR organized a vigorous "vote no" campaign. If successful, it would mean that the SPM wouldn't win exclusive representation rights and the FMPR would still exist as a "bona fide organization" under Puerto Rican law.



By one estimate, SEIU committed between $10 million and $20 million to the campaign, with more than 300 paid organizers on the ground, slick ads and free t-shirts. The FMPR, on the other hand, spent a mere $65,000 ($30,000 of it in loans), with mostly volunteers organizing. The difference is that these "volunteers" were the same people who helped organize the 10-day strike in February that won a wage increase and put a stop to the spread of charter schools. They were rank-and-file members with experience and a history of struggle alongside their co-workers.



FMPR's "vote no" campaign won a clear victory. The official tally is 18,123 to 14,675, in a vote where turnout was nearly 94 %. The victory is all the more impressive given that FMPR was denied the right to have observers at polling places, and that various vote shenanigans took place, with votes appearing after the last day of the election, and various "no" votes being counted as "yes." Now that FMPR has won, it continues to exist as the main organizer of teachers. However, it is not the formal collective bargaining agent. FMPR will maintain its network of shop stewards, continue to represent teachers at the school level, and to fight around issues such as wages and privatization. Eventually, FMPR could perhaps reestablish exclusive representation for the teachers.



The U.S. labor movement has a sordid history of collaborating with the State Department and CIA to undermine labor and democratic movements in other countries. SEIU's alliance with an anti-labor government to raid FMPR is only another chapter. SEIU's defeat in Puerto Rico is humiliating for SEIU President Andrew Stern, who seeks to remold the labor movement in his image. During Stern's 12 years in office, he and his team have centralized power in SEIU at the International level, in the name of being able to negotiate better contracts via "partnership" with employers and organize workers even faster. The result of substituting a militant rank and file with a small team of highly paid staffers is apparent. The types of deals being negotiated from the top have been so bad that rank-and-file workers are increasingly rejecting them.



Obviously, the black eye received by SEIU didn't help the SPM's campaign against the FMPR. Also, the challenge to the top SEIU leadership by UHW and reformers in other locals undermined SEIU's claim to be the way forward for the labor movement. The victory of the FMPR over the alliance of the Puerto Rican government, school administrators and SEIU teaches us important lessons about building unions today. First, it underlines the importance of building a fighting union from the bottom up, as opposed to more bureaucratic methods. Second, it teaches us the importance of genuine labor internationalism, based on rank-and-file action, solidarity and a commitment to union democracy.

FMPR - Puerto Rico Teacher Union Election Update

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.

FMPR Update from Angel Gonzalez

Please come to our Weds. Oct. 1st FMPR Support Comm. NY - Meeting where we will discuss what we can do here at this important juncture to support the democratic teachers' struggle.

As usual our meeting will be at:
Hunter College East - 14th Fl
Center for PR Studies
6:30PM

P'alante,
Angel

FMPR Update:

Last Friday the Appellate Court of Puerto Rico ruled in a divided (2-1)
decision in favor of the Labor Board's exclusion of FMPR from participating
in the election for exclusive representation of the 42,000 teachers of PR to
be held from October 1-16, 2008. There was no legal basis for the decision
and all arguments of FMPR were completely ignored--the Court simply ruled as
the Labor Board ruled--to disqualify the union because it had been
decertified by the Board for voting to go on strike.

Thus, the ballot will contain only one union choice: the SPM, the SEIU
Affiliate invented in December, 2007 as the "union" arm of the Associacion
de Maestros--the Managerial organization of Principals, etc.--which has
served for decades as the voice of the Populares (PPD). The Popular
Democratic Party (PPD) is the party currently in power in PR (but most
likely not for long, come November, many believe!)--which controls the
judiciary and the government--and serves as the teachers' employer.

The other choice the ballot will contain will be a NO vote--for no union.
The FMPR is conducting a campaign for teachers to vote NO to SPM and will
attempt to have observers in all of the schools. While the union will
appeal to the Supreme Court, it is believed that such a ruling will not
favor FMPR as the Supremo is controlled by Governor Acevedo Avila (PPD) who
has conspired with Dennis Rivera and the SEIU to destroy the militant union.

It is important to note that this decision completely ignores the more than
12,000 teachers who have already signed cards endorsing FMPR as
representative. SEIU, after spending millions on their campaign to compete
with FMPR in their decertification attempt, apparently realized they could
not win in a fair election. The only possible way for SPM to "win" would be
if it were the only choice--thus the long delay in the Appellate's decision.
This delay also serves to cut short the time FMPR would need to develop
legal arguments for the Supreme Court and to generate a "VOTE NO" campaign.

All of these shenanigans indicate clear collaboration among SEIU, the
Asociacion, the government-boss and the courts. Class allies.

Support Puerto Rico Teachers- FMPR

Hello folks.

Please consider taking some time to donate to the FMPR - they've led an amazing struggle earlier this year, and deserve everyone's support. I understand that a resolution supporting them also passed the AFT convention.

Peter

---

Summer-Fall, 2008

Dear Fellow Teacher Activists,

The teachers of Puerto Rico need your help! In February 2008, FMPR (Federación de Maestros de Puerto Rico--Puerto Rico Teachers Union)--the island's largest union--endured a ten day strike after working without a contract for over two years. The anti-labor governor of the island, Anibal Acevedo Vila, responded by decertifying the union and suspending its dues check off. Meanwhile, Dennis Hickey Rivera, VP of SEIU (Service Employees International Union), entered into discussions with Acevedo Vila with the intention of securing for SEIU exclusive representation of the island's teachers. Rather than stand in solidarity with the teachers of Puerto Rico in their hour of crisis, SEIU broke ranks and initiated a management-supported campaign to raid their union.

To continue to service members and fight for their rights and the improvement of education in Puerto Rico, FMPR has reconstituted itself as a --bona fide|| organization under Puerto Rican law and is challenging the governor's decertification in court. But legal and other fees are mounting and SEIU's well-financed campaign to raid and destroy the union promises to be long and brutal. Elections for exclusive representation of the teachers may be called at any moment. Monetary donations from people like you are critical NOW!

Juan Gonzalez of the NY Daily News describes SEIU's raid as --a shameful betrayal of solidarity.|| The UFT (United Federation of Teachers) the PSC (Professional Staff Congress), teachers unions in New York, and the AFT (the national teachers union) have all approved resolutions in solidarity with the striking teachers of Puerto Rico.

Ironically, SEIU is a strong critic of raiding - when it is the target of such raids. Union raids distract workers from the overarching issues that unite them. The battle gets redefined in terms of who can offer the --best deal.|| Instead, FMPR offers an extremely democratic structure in which members determine the union's direction on numerous levels. It has been on the forefront of every major education battle on the island for forty years and has played a leading role in the broader political struggles in Puerto Rico. FMPR has fought:

* for the right of public sector workers to strike

* to eliminate lead, toxic substances and rodents from school buildings and areas

* to obtain quality learning materials, improvements in the physical plant and to reduce class size

* for successful implementation of evidence-based pedagogy, emphasizing critical thinking instead of No Child Left Behind mandates which are destructive to real learning (such as over-testing)

* against the privatization of education and its manifestation: Charter Schools

* against military recruitment in schools instead of college recruitment

* for teacher/student/parent councils to collaborate on school issues

* to improve conditions for teachers whose base salaries cannot even sustain their own families

But FMPR will only be able to continue working for parents, students, and teachers with your help. Can you contribute $25 today to support FMPR as it fights for labor solidarity and union democracy?

Together we can stop the raids of union against union and bring

about a more democratic labor movement that empowers workers.

Support quality public education and the teachers of Puerto Rico!

In Solidarity,

FMPR Support Committee-NY

PLEASE SEND YOUR DONATION NOW TO:

FMPR

Urb. El Caribe 1572 Ave. Ponce de León

San Juan, Puerto Rico 00926-2710

Check or money order payable to "FMPR"--indicate "donation" on check

For more information:

FMPR SUPPORT COMMITTEE-NY: http://mysite.verizon.net/vze2kxcd/fmprsupportcommitteenewyork/

FMPR IN PUERTO RICO

: http://fmprlucha.org/

Highly Organized Puerto Rican Teachers Face Repression

http://uprisingradio.org/home/?p=2928

Highly Organized Puerto Rican Teachers Face Repression

Published on 24 Jul 2008 at 9:50 am. No Comments.
Filed under Selected Transcripts, Feature Stories.

Listen to this segment | the entire program

The highly organized teachers of Puerto Rico have faced violent repression in their fight for labor rights and quality education. The Federacion de Maestros de Puerto Rico or FMPR, represents over 40,000 teachers and is the largest independent union in Puerto Rico. In February 2008 teachers voted to strike after working without a contract for 30 months. Their historic 10 day strike was met with police action and over a dozen arrests. The FMPR’s main opposition is Governor Anibal Acevedo Vila, whose government decertified the union in retaliation. Now, leaders of the FMPR are on a national tour of the United States and they’re coming through Los Angeles. Their aim is to “build solidarity with teachers and communities… about what it will take to win quality education for all students as well as build a truly progressive labor movement.”

GUESTS: Raphael Feliciano-Hernandez, FMPR President, Luis Santiago, executive board member of FMPR, and Ana Serano, Vice President of the Aguadilla local of the FMPR. For more information, visit www.fmprlucha.org.

There will a fundraiser for the Puerto Rican Teachers’ Union on Thursday July 24, 2008 7pm, at UTLA, 3303 Wilshire Blvd., Room 815. For more information call 213-309-2713.

Rough Transcript

Sonali Kolhatkar: First, let’s talk about the 10-day strike that took place in February. Why was it historic and what was the result of the strike, what was the outcome, Raphael?

Raphael Feliciano-Hernandez: We developed a 10-day strike in last February. It is very important historical process, because between 23,000 and 26,000 teachers go to the strike. Most of them were women, were teachers of the elementary level and I think that is a very important process for us in Puerto Rico. You know that we are a colony of U.S. and No Child Left Behind is also in Puerto Rico, making a big damage to our educational system. The community, the teachers, make a joint effort against the government and the intention of the government to privatize schools using charter schools and cosa como esa. We thought that we make an agreement to stop charter schools in Puerto Rico. In Puerto Rico they cannot develop charter schools actually. And also we gain the respect of the community and of the people of Puerto Rico for we fight not only for our teachers’ issues, also we fight for a good education for all our people in Puerto Rico, because we have very bad conditions in our schools.

Sonali Kolhatkar: Let’s talk first about the conditions of the teachers in terms of salary, for example. What were teachers earning before the strike? How severe were your working conditions and did things improve after the strike, Ana?

Ana Serano: During the past 12 years, there hadn’t been an increase to the basic salary of teachers in Puerto Rico. Before the strike, we were earning $1,500. With the treat of the strike alone, just the threat, there was a $100 increase granted to the base salary pay. And as part of the negotiations to end the strike, there was an additional $150. So right now in Puerto Rico, teachers are earning at the beginning level $1,750 a month. That’s a monthly salary. Teachers that, for instance, have longer time in the system, perhaps like ten, fifteen years, are up to about $2,400 per month. And in terms of working conditions in Puerto Rico, one of the problems that we have had is that the Department of Education has deviated funds from the school to utilize for technological, what they call technological advances. Money that was destined for books, for teaching materials, for, you know, the chalk board, the dry-erase, paper, toilet paper, you name it. That money was deferred for the use of other systems. For instance we have a punch system, a biometric time-measurement system in Puerto Rico which we are also fighting. So, you know, money has been taken from the schools and it has been placed in systems that have nothing to do with the educational process and in fact detract from the educational process like that biometric system.

Sonali Kolhatkar: Meaning that people have to do what?

Ana Serano: We have to put our fingerprints to punch in and out. It’s a time-device system that we are fighting in the courts and we also have a group of teachers that have been resisting using this system and we are having a battle right now. Teachers are not being paid in Puerto Rico. And in terms of the class-size conditions, this was one of the reasons that we went on strike and that there was so much support.

Sonali Kolhatkar: What is the class size?

Ana Serano: There are groups that have up to 40, 42, 43, 44. My sister taught a school, a tenth-grade class with 47 students. It’s impossible to educate with so many students and that’s one of the principal reasons that we went on strike and were supported by so many members of the community.

Sonali Kolhatkar: Now the government decertified your union in retaliation for voting to strike. Was that legal? How has it affected your ability to carry out your tasks, Luis?

Luis Santiago: Under Law 45 – that is the labor law in Puerto Rico - the government can say that it’s correct. No? But nothing can stop the teachers. The union does not come from a law; the union does not come from a paper. The union comes from the will of the people.

Sonali Kolhatkar: So the Governor can just, as a single person, decertify an entire labor organization?

Luis Santiago: Ok, the law is so bad that in our case, before we went to the strike, just voting for the strike, they could decertify you. No? That’s what the government could do. But nothing stopped us. The penalties did not stop us; the decertification did not stop us [inaudible]. We went on to strike, because the will of the teachers, the will of the workers cannot be stopped by a law.

Sonali Kolhatkar: How has that affected your ability to carry out your union tasks, Raphael?

Raphael Feliciano-Hernandez: Well, first of all, for us, the right to strike is a workers’ right. The law can say that we don’t have that right, but we have that right, because we aren’t slaves. We have the right to stop to work when we understand that we have it. The government made the decertification, because they want to shut down our dues and that was very difficult, because the union works for many months without any dues. The leadership don’t have salary and most of the work of the union was on voluntary basis. That is very difficult, but it is very important, and that is one of the things that we will share tonight, is that money is not the principal factor to develop a strike. It’s the will of the people; the compromise of the people and the community to fight for better labor conditions, but also for a better educational condition for our students.

Sonali Kolhatkar: Let’s talk a little bit about some of the other factors that play in the union or around the union in Puerto Rico, which is that I understand that the Service Employees International Union, or SEIU, has aligned with the Governor of Puerto Rico, the person who decertified your union, and is planning on working to replace the FMPR with another union. Is this true and if so why would the SEIU do this?

Raphael Feliciano-Hernandez: Yes, well, when we were in the strike, we were making negotiation for the new contract.

Sonali Kolhatkar: And this is after working without a contract for 30 months?

Raphael Feliciano-Hernandez: Exactly. In that moment, SEIU intervention was very bad, because SEIU supports the Governor of Puerto Rico, Aníbal Acevedo Vilá, and they develop fund raisers for the relation campaign of the Governor. In that moment, Dennis Rivera flew from New York to Puerto Rico and met with the Governor and said that he cannot make a new contract with Federación, because they want to make a union [inaudible] against Federación. And if he makes a new contract, he will not give the money for the relation campaign, he have a compromise of four million dollars for that campaign. That was terrible, but I want to say little detail. We have to make a distinction between the leadership of SEIU and the members of SEIU. For example, in the convention…

Sonali Kolhatkar: …which was held in Puerto Rico, the SEIU convention…

Raphael Feliciano-Hernandez: …we went to the convention center and we have to fight with the police and with the strike teams of the police in Puerto Rico to be in the front of the building of the convention to give fliers to the stewards of the SEIU. The Governor made that order and we have, some of the teachers were beaten by the police and the special forces of the police. In the convention, most of the stewards of SEIU support Federación and they say that it’s a shame what is doing the national leadership with the teachers in Puerto Rico. I think that we have to develop and to support the movement inside SEIU for more democracy and for the empowerment of the workers of their own union. But in our strike, the intervention of the SEIU was terrible.

Sonali Kolhatkar: So FMPR is working with sort of a dissident movement within SEIU to try and reform the union, make it more democratic etc. You are working with that movement?

Raphael Feliciano-Hernandez: Well, we have a communication with some of the leadership and what we do is to support the movement for a real democracy and for the real empowerment for any union. But in this case for the SEIU movement for that is fighting back to change the form of what the leadership is managing…

Sonali Kolhatkar: And is this because essentially FMPR is an independent union?

Ana Serano: Well, I think part of the reason why we are doing this is because our union has a very long tradition of participatory democracy where union with rank and file makes the decisions and the leadership basically is the vehicle which carries out the will of the teachers. And all of the leadership is elected, our leadership comes from the classroom, we have within our constitution limitation of terms, so all of our leaders have to constantly go back to work in the classrooms and we don’t have people that are encrusted in leadership.

Sonali Kolhatkar: Sort of career unionists.

Raphael Feliciano-Hernandez: And my salary is the same salary that I have in the classroom, $2,600.

Sonali Kolhatkar: Well, you are not paid huge amounts…

Ana Serano: No, all of our leadership maintains the salary of teachers. That’s part of the commitment of the union to maintain rank and file as leaders, because we don’t have a different class of leadership. Our leaders come from us. We are teachers, social workers, librarians that come into leadership of the union and we go back to our posts within the schools and develop new leadership. And that kind of tradition is what has allowed our union leadership to maintain such a bond, because we are teachers and we are leaders, but we are the union.

Sonali Kolhatkar: Why are you touring the U.S. mainland and what sort of solidarity do you see from teachers here, you know, across the country, Luis?

Luis Santiago: The situation of the Puerto Rican teachers is similar to the situation of the teachers here in the United States. For example, Raphael mentioned a little while ago No Child Left Behind. No Child Left Behind is used to privatize the education here and in Puerto Rico. And it’s important that we have a communication that are experienced. No? Can communicate to the teachers in the United States, but it is also important that we hear from them and see what is their experience. And it is important that they know what is the SEIU doing in Puerto Rico that supports a bust union that is the Asociación de Maestros, the one that want to challenge the Federación de Maestros. And also, it is important that if they can also help us to fortify our union and let’s be real honest, we are also in fund raising. No? Because the fund raising is necessary in this moment that the government uses everything against us.

Sonali Kolhatkar: So you are really hurting for dues and, as you said, salaries even, for your leadership?

Raphael Feliciano-Hernandez: Remember, we developed a very hard strike and we need a time for recovery. And the government is making an alliance with some leaders of SEIU to make a joint effort against Federación and against the teachers. That is very, it’s a shame for the labor movement.

Sonali Kolhatkar: Are you hearing from rank and file SEIU members?

Raphael Feliciano-Hernandez: Yes, we have contact with some leaders of the opposition sectors and also we have good relation with rank and file members of SEIU in Puerto Rico, because many times, Federación support SEIU in Puerto Rico and we march with SEIU. For us was a very bad surprise to see how Dennis Rivera make an intervention directly against the teachers that we were on strike. But I think that in this moment, what needs the Federación? First of all, we need to share the information, to break the isolation between the fights of the teachers in many places in the U.S. and it is very important to share the information what happens in Puerto Rico. We will develop part of this tonight, but also, we need some economical support, because we, in this moment, we are in the process of the recovery and we need to develop a campaign to affiliate new members to recover the dues that we have before the strike.

Sonali Kolhatkar: Listeners can certainly come to tonight’s event in terms of that financial solidarity as well, but is there a website or any other way that listeners can express solidarity?

Raphael Feliciano-Hernandez: Yes, we have a website: www.fmprlucha.org.

Sonali Kolhatkar: FMPR stands for Federación de Maestros de Puerto Rico, the teachers federation in Puerto Rico, and my guests have been Raphael Feliciano-Hernandez, the President of the union; Luis Santiago, executive board member of the union; and Ana Serano, Vice President of the Aguadilla local at FMPR. I want to thank the three of you very much for joining us today.

Ana Serano: Thank you for having us.

Raphael Feliciano-Hernandez: It’s an honor to be here.

Sonali Kolhatkar: Absolutely for me to have you as well. Good luck to you and your struggle.

Special Thanks to Claudia Greyeyes for transcribing this interview

San Juan Showdown: Teachers Remind SEIU That Unionism (in Puerto Rico) Means More Than PR

Teachers Remind SEIU That Unionism (in Puerto Rico) Means More Than PR

San Juan Showdown

By STEVE EARLY

San Juan, P.R.

Operating with its usual purple panache, controversial political ties, and a huge advertising budget, America's most Latino-friendly-union has been romancing San Juan all wek long. As the Clinton and Obama campaigns wrapped up their paid media assault on Democratic primary voters, the 1.7 million member Service Employees International Union (SEIU) continued its own PR offensive, laying the groundwork for an upcoming vote among 40,000 teachers. In that election, SEIU seeks to replace a militant independent federation as Puerto Rico's largest labor organization.

In feel-good TV spots, full-page ads in all the major dailies, bus stop signs, and even airborne banners, SEIU has been "celebrating with enthusiasm" the official opening of its 2008 convention. That lavish gathering of 3,000 mainland delegates and guests began --under tight security--with a welcoming address from SEIU's special friend on the island, Anibel Acevedo-Vila.

Acevedo is the Popular Democratic Party governor and super-delegate for Obama. He was indicted on 19 criminal counts in March, accused of tax fraud, concealing illegal donations, and engaging in a conspiracy to violate campaign finance laws. If convicted on all these charges, he faces 20 years in prison. But, in the meantime, he plans to run for re-election in November despite shrivelled, Bush-level approval ratings.

Obama may have skipped a previously planned weekend rally with SEIU supporters to avoid an uncomfortable photo op with his most prominent local backer. (Instead, the soon-to-be Democratic nominee will speak to the delegates from a safer distance, via teleconference , on Wednesday).

Unlike the senator from Illinois, SEIU has no qualms about flaunting its relationship with the governor. Regardless of his legal problems, Acevedo remains a key ally in the union's on-going campaign to destroy, with government help, the Federacion do Maestros de Puerto Rico (FMPR). And that explains the biggest ruckus at the convention so far, which occurred on Saturday when two hundred FMPR members stopped by to express their lack of "enthusiasm" for Acevedo and Andy Stern, president of SEIU.

As properly credentialed SEIU visitors were being bussed from their hotels to pre-convention meetings, they could see that the whole "convention center district" had been cordoned off with metal barricades. Behind them were scores of armed police, unarmed security guards, and then an inner ring of SEIU staffers wearing yellow vests signifying that they too were "sergeants-at-arms."

Using the "mobile picketing" skills well honed during a ten-day strike by thousands of teachers in February, the FMPR delegation marched right up to a police check-point--two hundred yards from the meeting hall--and burst right through. The flying wedge took several casualties along the way, from flailing police clubs and attempted collars. They then made a successful dash for the front door of the building, which is bigger than an airline terminal.

The ensuing picket-line--composed of fleet-footed survivors of the race to get in--had a feisty David vs. Goliath feel to it. For more than two hours, the teachers walked, chanted, sang union songs, distributed leaflets, and displayed a big FMPR banner under the soaring arches of the! convention center entrance. The FMPR message was "Stop Union Raids" -- one that SEIU has fervently embraced back home but only when the California Nurses Association is "raiding" SEIU, in which case it should stop immediately. Arrayed between the teachers and curious SEIU delegates were 25 muscle-bound, jack-booted San Juan riot cops, who arrived with sirens blaring and even bigger clubs than their colleagues on the outer perimeter.

SEIU members who ventured forth to fraternize with the FMPRistas soon discovered that they were indeed brothers and sisters from another union planet--but hardly "an enemy" worthy of Stern's unprecedented security arrangements. As disapproving union officials hovered in the background, SEIU Local 1021 member Henry Baker, a San Francisco city worker and member of SDS (circa 1969), even joined the teachers' protest. ("I just don't like us being here and the teachers over there with all these cops in between," he told me.)

Meanwhile, a 49-year old science teacher named Rafael Feliciano Hernandez--the bearded, soft-spoken president of FMPR and "maestro" of its successful march through the police lines--was chatting quietly with other SEIU free thinkers. Rafi -- as he's called -- patiently recounted all the difficulties faced by his "strong rank-and-file union" during the last six months, thanks to SEIU.

Details of that saga first reached a larger mainland audience via a scathing column in The N.Y. Daily News by Democracy Now co-host Juan Gonzalez. An organizer of the Puerto Rican Young Lords in the late 1960s and, more recently, a union activist himself, Gonzalez criticized SEIU for "arrogant and colonialist" behavior in Puerto Rico, calling its attempted undermining of FMPR a "shameful betrayal of solidarity." The villain of this piece was none other than a former buddy, Dennis Rivera, longtime leader of SEIU District 1199 and past supporter of myriad good causes in NYC including the 1990-91 Daily News strike led by Gonzalez.

In his widely-read column, Juan reported that Gov. Acevedo had given his "close friend" Dennis "the green light last year to oust the teachers' federation and replace it with a newly-formed group, the Union of Puerto Rican Teachers" (or Sindicato Puertorriqueno de Maestros"). The SPM is the bastard child of a school administrators' association that affiliated with SEIU six months ago. The association is pro--privatization (which SEIU supposedly isn't) but affiliated with the union anyway to gain access to its vaunted political war-chest and lobbying clout. With aid from Rivera, Puerto Rican principals and supervisors have, in Gonzalez's words, "created a new union for their own subordinates." When these teachers took a strike vote in January -- after two years of frustrating talks with management negotiators who included members of SEIU's new affiliate--the FMPR was quickly "decertified," even before its members walked out.

Under "Law 45," the public sector bargaining statute enacted ten years ago (after heavy lobbying by US-based unions like SEIU and AFSCME), all strikes are banned. Strikers can also be fired and striking unions deprived of their "exclusive bargaining rights" plus the ability to collect mandatory dues. Despite these legal risks and penalties, the FMPR -- which is 80 per cent female -- still managed to rally 25,000 teachers outside the governor's mansion! on Feb. 21.
When its illegal walkout began several days later, it "paralyzed island public schools," according to Gonzalez. But it also generated widespread support among students, parents, and local communities concerned about FMPR issues like class size and deteriorating school conditions.

After ten days of picketing, ten thousand teachers came together in an island-wide "general assembly" and voted to "suspend" the work stoppage.In return, they won amnesty for all strikers, maintained the terms of their old contract, held onto a previously granted $150 raise, and got the government to freeze its plans for privatization, via charter schools. The teachers also secured a pledge from Acevedo to hike starting pay to $3,000 a month over the next eight years. (Today, new teachers here earn
$19,200 a year.)

FMPR activists I interviewed outside the convention center were quite proud of these gains -- and the political significance of their strike. Ana Serrano, a school social worker from Aguadilla, said everyone in her town, two hours away from San Juan, "knew why we went on strike. We were doing this for better schools, not just for us."

A Brooklyn-born graduate of SUNY Binghamton with a masters degree from NYU, Serrano now works in a school that's infested with rats and termites. During the strike, she said, fellow militants were beaten, arrested, and pepper-sprayed, while their elected leaders were heavily red-baited. Along w ith hundreds of other strike veterans, Serrano is now helping to keep FMPR afloat financially by making voluntary contributions to its treasury. They're confident of winning any re-certification vote (yet to be scheduled) that will pit their member-controlled organization against what they call the "chupa cuotas" (or "dues-suckers") from SEIU.

Key issues in the vote may include money and leadership accountability -- ie how much workers should pay in dues and what their leaders should be paid. FMPR fees are only $16 a month; that's $6 dollars less than what SEIU charges the much lower-paid school cafeteria workers that it already represents in Puerto Rico. SEIU's newly-affiliated school bosses union has a dues rate twice as high as FMPR's, As Feliciano explains, his own salary is capped at $2,600 a month--no more than the highest-paid teacher. (He's also limited to serving two consecutive terms.) In contrast, SEIU's top Puerto Rican official, Roberto Pagan, gets paid almost as much as the FMPR president for attending just a few board meetings each year as an SEIU vice-president.( In addition, he receives another $60,000 annually from his San Juan local.) Meanwhile, Rivera earns nearly $200,000 20annually as head of SEIU's national health care division -- more than five times the average wage of unionized hospital workers in the U.S.

The radical idealism of FMPR stands in sharp contrast to dominant trends in SEIU (notwithstanding the brave convention fight about to be waged this week by United Healthcare Workers-West and its allies in SEIU Members for Reform Today (SMART). While a middle-aged English teacher named Edgardo Alvelo was telling me about member involvement in the ! FMPR, the self-proclaimed "21st Century Union" was inside the convention hall showcasing a new system for "servicing" its members via regional call centers. Under a Stern-proposed expansion of SEIU "Membership Resource Centers," workers will be given 800 numbers to call for information and advice about job-related problems. As part of controversial SEIU deals with several big catering firms, this method of "representation" has already been "trialed" with union-negotiated restrictions on workplace agitation and strikes.

Alvelo was incredulous that any union would undermine its own ability to apply direct "pressure on the boss" through member mobilization. In FMPR, he explained, "the shop steward is a leader at the school level. He or she represents other workers and helps them organize concerted actions to win better conditions. You can't do that from the outside."

For Alvelo, his union's dispute with SEIU is both personal and political. He's known Dennis Rivera ("a nice person, in terms of personality") since they were both schoolmates in the town of Aibonito. The SEIU leader was called Dennis Hickey back then. "My mother worked for Dennis's father," recalls Avelo, explaining that the elder Hickey came from the mainland to manage a local textile plant and ended up marrying a local girl. Rivera adopted his mother's name when he moved to Newe York to become a hospital worker organizer in the late 1970s, after several years of activism in the Puerto Rican Socialist Party. (In a catchy satirical tune, blasted from its borrowed sound truck, FMPR keeps Rivera's patrimony in the picture for better rhyming purposes (if not other reasons as well); as I left the "convention district" on Saturday, I could still hear the sound of Spanish lyrics about "t! riqui, triqui, Dennis Hickey" and his "pirateria sindical" (pirate union).

Serrano also knew Hickey- Rivera during his radical youth. But she's extremely wary now about his penchant for partnering with conservative politicians like Acevedo or George Pataki, when he was GOP governor of New York. "We have members from all the different Puerto Rican parties in our union," she says. "But it's not good for a workers' organization to become an appendage of any one of them. Because, when they get into power, then the union just shuts up."

Serrano left the last word on Rivera and his political trajectory to Pedro Albizu Campos. A Harvard-educated, US-Navy veteran, Albizu spent many years in federal prison for his "seditious" brand of Puerto Rican nationalism. In that movement, "Don Campos," as Serrano calls him, knew a thing or two about the slippery slope from principle to pragmatism and then on down to sellout. Once this backsliding begins, she explains -- paraphrasing Albizu --"you slip and you slide until you fall and break your ass."

Within the FMPR, Serrano is not alone in believing that Dennis Rivera and SEIU are headed for such a fall themselves--on the hard rock of Puerto Rican teachers determined to have a union they can call their own.

Steve Early is a Boston-based labor journalist and lawyer who is covering the SEIU convention in San Juan. He's been active in the labor movement since 1972 and can be reached at Lsupport@aol.com

"

Forum: Puerto Rico Teachers' Strike '08 Apr. 4 at Hunter College

Puerto Rican Teacher Strike Updates

UPDATE: March 3

SUPPORT THE TEACHERS OF PUERTO RICO,
WHO FIGHT FOR THE RIGHTS OF US ALL!

JOIN US IN SUPPORT OF PUERTO RICO'S TEACHERS
AND IN DEFENSE OF PUBLIC EDUCATION!
DEMONSTRATE YOUR SOLIDARITY!!

5pm • Tuesday, March 4, 2008 • 5pm

Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration offices
475 Park Avenue South at 32 Street, Manhattan

A crucial strike for all working people is now taking place in Puerto Rico! The island's biggest labor union is waging a fight for survival, for free public education and against the privatization schools. At stake are the universal right to unionize, to collective bargaining, to strike and workers' rights and the basic right of freedom of expression. The Teachers' Federation of Puerto Rico (FMPR) has been on strike since February 21, 2008 in a life and death struggle against the anti-labor and repressive crusade of the colonial government. The colonial administration of Anibal Acevedo Vilá has been refusing to negotiate for more than 27 months with no contract. With more than 40,000 members, mainly women, the Federation has refused to be intimidated and is taking a courageous stand for the rights of all.

The government's contempt for teachers, students and parents, as well as for their input in education, is so extreme that it locked out the teachers throughout the island, as well as hundreds of thousands of students, for two weeks during April-May 2006. The government, facing a fiscal crisis, was forcing the public sectors to endure the brunt of the crisis.

Now SEIU chief Dennis Rivera helped get Puerto Rico teachers union ousted so he could hijack members. While the clash between the teachers' militant leaders and the government was grabbing the headlines, Rivera was maneuvering to snatch control of the teachers for his Service Employees International Union. Puerto Rico Governor Acevedo Vilá's Secretary of Education, Aragunde, has ruled that the federation will not be permitted to run in any new elections for a union to represent the teachers.

More than support statements are needed! As support grows among workers, union members and independent unions in Puerto Rico and internationally, our support NOW will make a difference!! With growing potential for other unions in Puerto Rico to walk out in solidarity, public pressure greatly intensifies on the anti-worker union-busting administration in Puerto Rico. Already, the colonial government faces a social and political crisis, as the school strike affects every part of the island. Solidarity actions by workers everywhere in support of the Puerto Rican teachers are crucial.

JOIN US IN SUPPORT OF PUERTO RICO'S TEACHERS AND IN DEFENSE
OF PUBLIC EDUCATION!
DEMONSTRATE YOUR SOLIDARITY!!

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration offices
475 Park Avenue South at 32 Street, Manhattan

5pm

http://mysite.

verizon.net/vze2kxcd/fmprsupportcommitteenewyork
http://www.fmprlucha.org
fmpr.support.committee.ny@gmail.com

News

• A petition will be passed out at the UFT DA on Weds. Mar. 5.

• A motion supporting the Puerto Rican teachers strike, and to participate in strike support work, was passed unanimously by the PSC delegate assembly tonight, and $651dollars were collected. The PSC is part of the AFT.

http://www.laborradio.org/node/8013

• Striking Puerto Rican Teachers Union Decertification Upheld By Appellate Court - 02/28/08

By Doug Cunningham

FMPR, a union representing 42,000 striking Puerto Rico teachers, is officially decertified. An appellate court upheld that decertification. The teachers went on strike after 30 months of bargaining proved fruitless. The Puerto Rican Secretary of Education says there will be no further contract talks under any circumstances. Puerto Rican teachers are paid more than $19,000 less than teachers in any U.S. state, despite the fact that the cost of living is generally higher in Puerto Rico than in the U.S.

WBAI Radio's Building Bridges: Your Community & Labor Report
Produced & Hosted by Mimi Rosenberg & Ken Nash
Monday, March 3, 2008, 7 - 8 p.m. EST, over 99.5 FM
or streaming live at http://www.wbai.org
****************************************
Union Busting, It’s Disgusting:

Teachers in Puerto Rico Forced To Strike
with
Raphael Feliciano Hernandez, President,

Teachers’ Federation of Puerto Rico (FMPR)
and
Manuel Boigues, Administrator, FMPR

The FMPR strike, that defies the prohibition on strikes by public employees,
has paralyzed the islands’ public schools. The union, representing more
than 42,000 teachers throughout Puerto Rico, struck after years of bad faith
bargaining by Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila and a contested attempt by him to
decertify the union just for threatening a strike. In response to the strike, the

Governor has had the FMPR decertified and excluded them from elections

he is calling for a new union. Now, the Governor appears to be in collusion

with the Service Employees International Union to bust the FMPR and

install an SEIU affiliate.

New York labor SEIU leader Dennis Rivera in shady Puerto Rico union deal
http://webmail.atl.earthlink.net/wam/msg.jsp?msgid=56655&folder=INBOX&isSeen=false&x=96995471

Juan Gonzalez
New York labor leader Dennis Rivera in shady Puerto Rico union deal

Friday, February 29th 2008, 4:00 AM
SEIU chief Dennis Rivera helped get Puerto Rico teachers union ousted so he could hijack members, critics charge. Dabin for News

SEIU chief Dennis Rivera helped get Puerto Rico teachers union ousted so he could hijack members, critics charge.

In what some call a shameful betrayal of solidarity, powerhouse New York labor leader Dennis Rivera has joined Puerto Rico's governor in a stunning attempt to break the island's largest union.

Eight days ago, the Puerto Rico Federation of Teachers, which represents 40,000 teachers, paralyzed island public schools with a strike.

The teachers, who earn top wages of $26,000 a year, had worked for 30 months without a contract. Union leaders were furious that Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila imposed new working conditions last year, decertified the union in January and suspended its dues checkoff.

The governor's draconian actions came after the union's membership voted in November to authorize a strike. Since 1998, Puerto Rico's government workers have not been allowed to strike.

While the clash between the teachers' militant leaders and the government was grabbing the headlines, Rivera was maneuvering to snatch control of the teachers for his Service Employees International Union.

Top labor leaders here and in Puerto Rico say Acevedo Vila gave Rivera, a close friend and a vice president of the 1.6-million member SEIU, a green light last year to oust the teachers federation and replace it with a newly formed labor group, the Union of Puerto Rican Teachers.

That new union is a subsidiary of the Puerto Rico Teachers Association, a group that has long represented principals and supervisors at island public schools.

In January, Rivera and Aida Diaz, president of the principals group, announced that the principals were affiliating with SEIU and their new subsidiary would demand an election to oust the Federation of Teachers.

The principals and supervisors, in effect, created a new union for their subordinates. What they didn't say was that they had the backing of the governor in this union-raiding scheme.

"The governor told Dennis, 'It's essentially yours to take,'" said one source who claims he was at a meeting in late December between top island union leaders, the governor and Rivera.

This week, El Diario-La Prensa reported that Rivera and Acevedo Vila also met in September at a San Juan restaurant to discuss the teachers union as well as possible financial backing by SEIU for the governor.

"That's a total fabrication," Rivera said yesterday of the Diario story. "Did I meet with the governor of Puerto Rico in a public restaurant around August? Yes, I've met with him maybe 20 times. Did I offer him donations in any way, shape or form? Absolutely not."

Rivera also denied any talks with the governor about a campaign by SEIU to become the bargaining agent for Puerto Rico's teachers.

ACEVEDO VILA'S office did not respond yesterday to a request for comment. The governor flatly denied to Puerto Rico reporters this week that he attended any meeting with Rivera to discuss financial support.

A few days after Rivera and the principals' union held their press conference, the government of Puerto Rico decertified the teachers federation. Acevedo's education secretary has ruled that the federation will not be permitted to run in any new elections for a union to represent the teachers.

In Puerto Rico, there is a long history of antagonism between independent unions, like the teachers and the electrical workers, and the labor organizations connected to the AFL-CIO or the new Change to Win federation, of which SEIU is a part.

Too many U.S.-based unions operate in an arrogant and colonialist fashion, the independents say.

What they never expected was to see the most influential Puerto Rican labor leader in the U.S. treat them just like those old Washington labor leaders have done for so long.

jgonzalez@nydailynews.com