Puerto Rico: Beating a Lockout

SAN JUAN

More than 150 members of Servidores Públicos Unidos (SPU)/AFSCME Council 95 marched in May to protest Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vilá's lockout of nearly 100,000 public employees. They, and thousands of other workers, took to the streets in San Juan and other cities to pressure lawmakers to settle their differences over government funding. The impasse led to the two-week closing of more than 1,500 public schools as well as 43 government agencies where many SPU members work.

The crisis was resolved — for the fiscal year that ends June 30 — when the governor and legislators agreed to authorize an emergency loan of nearly $750 million — and a new sales tax to repay it. Workers, promised back pay, returned to their jobs on May 15. But negotiations over a budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1 are unresolved, so SPU plans to lead a delegation of union officials to meet with leaders of the House and Senate, and with the governor, to find a more permanent solution.

Days before the lockout ended, José La Luz, special projects manager for the International, said the majority of SPU's members "are single heads of households who can no longer tolerate this situation. Without income, they're collecting Food Stamps and unemployment checks of just $133 per week."

Of the 25,000 members represented by Council 95, some 6,000 corrections workers and critical health and safety employees remained on the job during the government shutdown. The rest are employed throughout the island in such departments as education, family services, natural resources, consumer affairs and environmental resources.

Early in the crisis, Pres. Gerald W. McEntee sent letters to members of Congress, urging them to call on the island's lawmakers "to stop playing politics" while essential government services "ground to a halt."