Building Bridges: Your Community and Labor Report
National Edition
Produced by Ken Nash and Mimi Rosenberg
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Teacher and Utility Unions on the State of the Puerto Rican Labor
Movement After Maria and Governor Rossello's Plans to Privatize
the Public Power Company and Schoolswith Fredyson Martinez Estevez, Vice- President of the Irrigation & Electrical
Workers Union, Unión de Trabajadores de la Industria Eléctrica y Riego,
and
Mercedes Martínez Padilla, President of the Teachers' Federation of
Puerto Rico/Federación de Maestros de Puerto Rico
In Puerto Rico, hundreds of thousands of people are still reeling from the
destruction caused by Hurricane Maria. In a time of such dire need, the
Trump administration has failed to provide the support needed to restore
water to 7% of Puerto Rican residents and power to the nearly one in three
residents, paving the way for a catastrophic announcement. The decision to
privatize Puerto Rico’s state-owned power company which follows the same
dangerous path mapped out in the Trump administration’s draft infrastructure
plan.
Whether it’s water or energy, privatization helps Wall Street at the expense
of the well being and health of communities, particularly low-income families
and people of color. Trump's leaked infrastructure plan similarly provides a
blueprint for handing over public land and public water to Wall Street. It seeks
to privatize local water systems and other critical public services, prioritizing
limited federal dollars to Wall Street and corporate investors. This scheme
would also sell off federal assets and create a new infrastructure fund by
opening up federal lands and waters to mineral and energy development
benefiting the oil and gas industry.
We’ll speak with representatives of public sector unions in Puerto Rico
representing teachers and utility workers about Governor Rossello's plans
to privatize their services, and about challenges faced by the labor
movement and workers following hurricane Maria and they’ll discuss
labor issues affecting those unions under the Puerto Rico Oversight,
Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA)
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