Puerto Ricans strike against privatisation

July 1, 1998
Issue 

By Barry Sheppard

On June 18, 6000 members of the Independent Union of Telephone Employees (UIET), which represents technicians and phone repair workers, and the Independent Brotherhood of Telephone Employees (HIETEL), which organises office workers, went on strike over plans by the US colony's government to privatise the Puerto Rican Telephone Company. There is a broad-based movement in Puerto Rico against the privatisation.

On June 23, more than 1000 members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters joined the picket lines, as did the Ports Employees Union. The port workers blocked one entrance to the busy San Juan port on June 24. The same day, 6000 workers at the Electric Power Authority and the Irrigation Workers Union began a three-day sympathy strike.

Jose Valentin, president of the Irrigation Workers Union, said he would consider turning the protest strike into an indefinite walkout. Last October, more than 100,000 demonstrators converged on the capital, San Juan, to protest against the government's plan. That mobilisation was the largest ever on the island.

Last month, the government announced that it had sold 40% of the public utility to General Telephone and Electric (GTE), based in the mainland US. GTE will lead a consortium of investors if the privatisation goes ahead, and it will have a majority of seats on the board of directors.

Opponents of privatisation fear that a privatised PRTC will carry out mass firings, leaving the company with an understaffed, overworked, underpaid, non-union labour force. According to union leaders from the Dominican Republic, who visited Puerto Rico last month, after GTE bought that country's phone company, it fired a third of its personnel within a year.

The strike began on June 18 at 4am, as thousands of PRTC workers and their supporters from other unions and from left, pro-independence and student groups assembled at the entrances of phone company buildings.

The police deployed massive armed force to herd scabs through the picket lines, beating and tear-gassing the strikers and their supporters.

"The police are abusing, beating, intimidating and provoking our people. They have beaten women and sprayed tear gas on them", said Jose Hernandez, president of the UIET. He said the police violated a non-confrontation agreement they had made with the unions.

Management personnel were able to keep the company running for a few days because much of the equipment is automated. But by June 24, company spokespeople reported that 20% of customers were without phone service, and the number is climbing.

One-third of the island's automated teller machines were also out of service. A major bank and at least one luxury resort were also affected.

The company has acknowledged that it is losing $700,000 a day. The Banco Popular de Puerto Rico, which is to be a minority partner in the consortium led by GTE, reported that 45 of its 198 branches on the island were without phones.

The police violence has spurred protest. The president of the Puerto Rico Bar Association, Fermin Arraiza, and the president of the Puerto Rican Commission on Civil Rights, Luis Aulet, have denounced the "excessive use of force" by the police.

Puerto Rico Governor Rosello said he was determined that the $1.875 billion sale would go through. As more workers join the protests and strike, the confrontation is escalating.

[Cesar Ayala and Carmelo Ruiz in Puerto Rico provided information used in this article.]

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