Some large Puerto Rico government unions are threatening to strike if they cannot make changes to the governor's recent budget proposals.
The leaders of these unions, which represent the public corporation workers, called on Tuesday for the government to suspend making payments on the government's debt, according to a government source. The government is not considering this, the source said.
The governor is seeking the passage of a measure that would allow it to declare a financial emergency and suspend various contracts, including those with its unionized labor force.
Some of the government's measures to reduce spending include capping the workers' Christmas bonus at $600 and their summer bonus at $200, eliminating rights to financial compensation for unused sick days, and eliminating four paid holidays.
"The proposed law is much more serious than the discussion about whether or not to lose sick leave," Ángel Figueroa Jaramillo, president of Union of Electrical Industry and Irrigation Workers, wrote in a bulletin to his membership. "It is aiming against all the rights we have acquired in wages and fringe benefits, including our retirement system."
If the government gets its way, "In simple words, you have a job, but you do not have rights, it is modern slavery," Figueroa Jaramillo wrote in the bulletin.
Along with Figueroa Jaramillo's union, some of the other public corporation unions are threatening to strike, a government source said. These unions represent 8% of the governments' workers.
The unions organized a two-hour work stoppage Wednesday.
Other government union leaders are meeting with government leaders each Wednesday morning, the government source said. The government is open to changing its fiscal measures as long as the changes do not reduce total savings, she said.
Public corporation workers are some of the best-paid workers in the commonwealth and there isn't necessarily a great deal of public support outside their ranks, the government source said.
