During Puerto Rico's 2008 political debates leading up to the election of a new Governor, ex-governor Acevedo Vilá would repeatedly accuse his opposition, Luis Fortuno, of plans to shrink the government budget by eliminating 30,000 public employees. Fortuno would scoff and always repeat the same line: "Si Vota por Fortuño, Fortuño te Bota a ti," he would reply ["The only public employee that I am going to fire is Acevedo Vilá!"].
Imagine the public's suprise when just a few months after his inauguration, Fortuño announced the critical need to eliminate a disturbingly-large number of Puerto Rican workers. Exactly the number, as it so happens, as Puerto Rico's ex-governor repeatedly claimed throughout his campaign and debates: 30,000 public employees.
Less suprising was the public's reaction during Gov. Fortuño's first public appearance since announcing the firing of almost 17,000 government employees on September 25th: an egg was hurled at his head by one of the workers affected by the Gov.'s mass layoffs (he was also a previous Fortuno campaign supporter). During the press conference in Fajardo as Fortuno lavished praise upon himself for a new initiative he boasted would 'create jobs,' the worker shouted "Hypocrite, how dare you talk about jobs when you're getting rid of them!"...and let the egg fly.
Those who thought the stimulus funds ($176 million) dispersed under President Obama were meant to disseminate these kinds of massive layoffs were mistaken, as it turns out. Instead, as the funds stay undistributed and families suffer, Governor Fortuno is asking for money beyond the stimulus in order to bail out Puerto Rico's banking system. He's also seeking funds for Medicaid.
Adding to the understandable outrage of the island's working people? The Governor's administration has now threatened to charge picketing citizens for engaging in terrorism if their actions during the planned national October 15 protest infringes upon the flow of trade at the island's ports and other modes of transportation.
Labor leaders decided to hold a meeting to coordinate Thursday's upcoming event. "They do not expect us to go to their place after calling us terrorists, do they?" said Victor Villalba, the president of the Puerto Rican Workers Central, one of Puerto Rico's four union conglomerates including SEIU Local 1996SPT. Strike leaders refused to meet at Police headquarters after government officials unleashed their fear-mongering "terrorist" threats, and the meeting was unilaterally moved to striker's territory.
Everything happening within the political climate and daily growing number of protesters and marches in major cities of Puerto Rico is leading up to the general strike on October 15th...stay tuned as we bring you updates leading up the strike.
