25 June 1998
Neoliberalism may just die in the Caribbean. Puerto Rico Telephone Company worker unions have launched a strike in an attempt to force the commonwealth government to reconsider its decision to privatized the publicly-owned corporation. Governor Pedro Rossello has responded with a heavy hand and gratuitous accusations against strike supporters. To his embarrassment, support for the strike has grown. A general public-sector strike may start as early as Monday morning.
Already aqueduct, electricity and dock workers have joined in with work stoppages in support of the telephone union. Truckers, taxi drivers, the State Insurance Fund union, municipal bona fide unions have joined in with supportive work stoppages and loud presence at the picket lines. The health workers union, affiliated to the Service Employees International Union, and the Teamsters local have been supportive, though they have not held solidarity stoppages. University professors have been present at most picket lines, and the University Professors Confederation has announced that it will paralyze the Universtity of Puerto Rico if there is a general strike.
A majority of PRTC stock has been sold to a consortium made up of US telecommunications giant GTE and Banco Popular, a local private bank. Two thirds of the PR population opposes PRTC privatization and the opposition has been tenacious. Violent incidents have taken place on occasion, as police officers have protected strikebreakers.
This is an unusual strike in that it is not about wages or conditions, but directly against privatization and the neoliberal onslaught. And, polls have shown that the sale is opposed by a majority of Puerto Ricans. . Despite the image of a "necessary (or unavoidable) process of our globalized world" that neoliberals have put forth, the local unions have successfully presented privatization as a cancer that that can be stopped. Even population sectors unrelated to PRTC have expressed their opposition to this transaction and to privatization in general. Government officials say the transaction is a fait accompli, but the people are still on the street. But on the street the struggle continues, and it feels as if the whole country is on strike.
Today a bomb went off in a Banco Popular branch. A police officer was injured, and Superintendent Pedro Toledo has said has blamed the blast on the People's Boricua Army of the (a.k.a. the Macheteros). Many PRTC facilities, including phone line switching stations, have been sabotaged. Many ATM machines do not work, and this message may not get to you if I work on it any longer.
So here it goes.
I thought you might like to know about all this. As far as I can tell, in the US only CNN in Spanish has mentioned the strike. Please post it; write about it; let others know.
Bye now,
Jose B. Davila-Acaron
Assistant Professor
University of Puerto Rico
General Engineering Department
PO Box 9044
Mayaguez, Puerto Rico 00681-9044
Office 1-787-832-4040, extension 3789
Fax 1-787-265-3816
Residence 1-787-832-7016