To: JOSE FORTUNO
Please convey our message to Jose, Juan, and Annie, as we do not have a direct route to hand; we would also ask you, if possible, to send us electronic addresses for the union organisations within the telecommunications sector as well as at national level in Puerto Rico.
Lima, 7 July 1998
Dear comrades,
Jose Juan Hernandez
President of the Independent Union of Telephone Employees (UIET)
Annie Cruz
President of the Independent
Brotherhood of Telephone Employees (HIETEL)
San Juan, Puerto Rico
With our fraternal salute and solidarity,
The United Union of Telephone Workers of Peru salutes the valiant historic act which our fellow telephone workers of the state enterprise Telefonica de Puerto Rico (TPR) have carried out in opposition to the privatisation of this bastion of national dignity.
The heroic struggle undertaken by your unions since 18 June brings satisfaction to all telephone comrades in Latin America and in particular in Peru, because it emphasizes the quality and capacity for struggle which makes all of us proud to belong to the same telephone sector. The Puerto Rican people must admire this historic struggle of their children.
The patriotic demand of the Puerto Rican telephone workers has penetrated so deeply that the solidarity displayed by the Broad Committee of Union Organisations (CAOS) and the General Council of Workers (CGT) has immediately come together in your support, because it is a cause which involves the entire Puerto Rican people, declaring a 48 hour strike to halt the privatisation of the state enterprise TPR.
Reiterating our fullest solidarity for your struggle, we offer the Puerto Rican people our salute and support to defend with tenacity the dignity of their legitimate patriotic interests.
Santiago Abregu Garcia
General Secretary
SINDICATO UNITARIO DE TRABAJADORES DE TELEFONICA DEL PERU S.A.
(United Union
of Telephone Workers of Peru)
AV. URUGUAY 335 - LIMA 1
TEL. 428-9965
FAX. 433-7612