General strike idles Puerto Rico

World Combined Sources

This article was reprinted from the July 11, 1998 issue of the People's Weekly World. For subscription information see below. All rights reserved - may be used with PWW credits.

SAN JUAN, P.R. - More than 500,000 workers began a general strike in Puerto Rico July 7 in solidarity with striking telephone workers who are battling a scheme by Gov. Pedro Rosello to privatize the island nation's telephone service.

Workers from 60 unions and scores of community and student organizations surged through the streets of San Juan carrying hundreds of Puerto Rican flags and chanting "Huelga general" (general strike). Gov. Rosello had called up heavily armed police who, over the past two weeks, have brutally beaten the telephone workers.

The police were out in force again when the general strike began. But they could not contain the half million general strikers who joined the picket lines at the Puerto Rican Telephone Co., blocked the gates of the Eli Lilly pharmaceutical plant and jammed the entrance to the main international airport.

The fight doesn't end here, its just the beginning," Sen. Ruben Berrios, a leader of the Puerto Rican Independence Party, told thousands of protesters at a giant rally He accused Gov. Rosello of "selling off the national patrimony" in signing a deal to sell the telephone system for $1.9 billion to a consortium headed by the U.S. telecommunications giant, GTE.

Annie Cruz, leader of the telephone workers, told reporters that strike leaders will meet Thursday to discuss the next steps in the struggle.

It was the second general strike in Puerto Rico in recent months. Last October, 200,000 workers walked out in a general strike against privatization of public services. By acclamation, 1,200 delegates from trade unions and community organizations approved the general strike at a meeting June 28 of the Comite Amplico de Organizaciones Sindicales (CAOS).

The resolution denounced privatization for inflicting terrible effects in work and employment conditions and in accessibility of services for the lowest income sectors" of the population. CAOS points out that most public services in Puerto Rico are state-owned and are of good quality, inexpensive, and available even in the poorest neighborhoods. Privatization is sure to put these services beyond the reach of the working poor. The CAOS resolutions demanded that Rosello cancel the sale of the telephone company.

CAOS appealed for solidarity both from within Puerto Rico and from around the world. "We need all the support possible, moral, political, media and economic," declared a CAOS appeal sent out over the Internet. "Organize demonstrations in front of the offices of GTE, the government of Puerto Rico, U.S. embassies, Banco Popular of Puerto Rico, tourism offices of Puerto Rico"

The meeting approved a resolution denouncing the sale of the telephone company as a "direct attack on the best interests of the people of Puerto Rico. . .part of a privatization policy that the administration has been pushing in several sectors. . .education, health, water, electricity, housing, among others"

In response to the mass arrests and brutal beating of strikers, Puerto Rican citizens have contributed more than $100,000 for legal and medical assistance.

In Philadelphia, City Councilman Angel Ortiz called on the labor movement in Philadelphia to "follow the lead" of workers in his native Puerto Rico by staging a general strike to help Philadelphia transit workers win their five- week strike.

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