The economic crisis in Puerto Rico is fast racing towards a depression-era level. The unemployment level is already at 17 percent, and Governor Fortuño's recent pink-slipping of 17,000 government workers to take effect Nov. 6 will only make things worse. If not stopped, Puerto Rico's unemployment rate could easily reach that of New Orleans post-hurricane Katrina.

Gov. Fortuño said the job cuts, expected to save $386 million, are necessary because the government faces a $3.2 billion deficit this year. These numbers are certainly nothing to sniff at---but I can't help but wonder about the money Puerto Rico has received from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Thanks to these funds, other states in crisis have already generated thousands of new jobs in green sectors, sustainable energy, information technology, and infrastructure. But according to federal reporting, Puerto Rico has created only 126 jobs after receiving $2.9 BILLION in ARRA funds. Even with my rudimentary accounting knowledge, I'm pretty sure these numbers don't add up.

In a Huffington Post piece today, SEIU Healthcare Chair Dennis Rivera warns that "what started as a march in protest to the impending firings of public sector workers has turned into a movement to hold Governor Fortuño accountable for solving [Puerto Rico's] financial nightmare."

Failing to suppress turnout, the Governor's administration did its best to minimize the event, officially stating that 15,000 people turned out while the media estimates were 150,000 and organizers estimated closer to 300,000. Governor Fortuño and his administration are clearly aware that it's one thing to have a problem contained at home; it's quite another thing to become a problem in the eyes of Congress and the Obama administration.

While President Obama's vision for the U.S. economy is anchored in creating good jobs, affordable healthcare, and increasing accountability in the private sector, Governor Fortuño is clinging desperately to George Bush's failed economic agenda. This agenda protected the private sector and the very wealthy at all costs, decreased government accountability, and basically stacked the deck against the poor and middle class. And here we are one recession, an American Recovery Investment Act and a TARP Act later working our way out of it.

If Governor Fortuño and Puerto Rico's Resident Commissioner, Congressman Pierluisi can keep the problem quarantined within Puerto Rico, they too will get a free pass on accountability for their lack of a clear plan to revive the U.S. territory's plummeting economy. They will continue to apply "survival of the fittest" economics to Puerto Rico with no need to account for how America's multi-billion dollar funding to the island is invested.

Read the full piece at Huffington Post here. More on SEIU's blog about today's follow-up actions by Todo Puerto Rico Por Puerto Rico.

For an inadvertent visitor, there were plenty of street festivals going on in Puerto Rico on Thursday. Very loud music played on enormous loudspeakers, people were chanting and dancing in the streets and a very joyful ambiance was felt everywhere.

It wasn't a carnival happening in Puerto Rico though--it was the General Strike that mobilized over 150,000 workers and citizens to protest Republican Governor Luis Fortuño's massive layoffs. "It was tremendous. I've been in the labor movement for 44 years and this was the most impressive event I've ever seen. It was up there with the immigrant mobilizations of 2006," said Executive VP Eliseo Medina of the assembly of Puerto Rican workers. "It was one of the most diverse events that I've ever seen in a society. Lawyers, workers, students, psychologists, priests and minsters and nuns and everyday people. It was truly an amazing sight. It was pretty clear, our rejection of Governor Fortuño's policies."

Thursday's one-day national strike and rally was a first for many Puerto Ricans who had never taken the streets to protest before. As 'firsts' go, this one was quite impressive! On the morning of the 15th, seven marches from various locations across the Island converged at the main rally site in Hato Ray: Plazas las Americas, the largest shopping mall in the Caribbean. The shopping center was transformed into an enormous rainbow of flags and colorful banners, calling for a revoke of the law that authorized the firing of over thirty thousand public servants. According to reports, all mass public transportation was stopped, except for the trains. The port, docks and ferries in San Juan came to a halt, as did practically all public services across the Island. The public school system closed after only 2 percent of all students showed up for class, and all public universities were also closed.

SEIU Executive VP Eliseo Medina addressed demonstrators on their way to Plaza Las Americas during Puerto Rico's national strike on October 15, 2009

SEIU Healthcare chair Dennis Rivera, Local 1966SPT President Robert Pagan and Eliseo Medina joined the historic protest alongside hundreds of thousands of Puerto Rican workers, SEIU members, faith leaders, students and citizens in what's being called 'the greatest public demonstration in Puerto Rico's history.' SEIU leaders have been in San Juan since Wednesday helping out the striking workers, as many of the laid-off workers are SEIU members. "It is critical. 7,500 members of SEIU are going to lose their jobs," SEIU Healthcare chair Dennis Rivera told The Hill. "If SEIU cannot help their members in their time of need, what good would this organization be?"

Even in the wake of largest demonstration in Puerto Rican history as the country's unemployment rate tops 17 percent, Governor Fortuño continues to parrot his plan to lay off 17,000 state employees made viable under Law 7 will not be repealed. While Governor Fortuño has made it clear that he's not going to listen to the citizens of Puerto Rico or the widespread opposition to his administration's policies, this fight is far from over. "The people have spoken, and they are not going to allow this administration to devastate the lives of working families, ruin the economy, and dismantle Puerto Rico's safety net," said Dennis Rivera. Members of SEIU Local 1996SPT, Local 1199 UGT and other unions and coalitions in Puerto Rico have pledged to continue protests against the job cuts in and outside of the Island.

As the impending date the massive layoffs go into effect creeps closer, thousands of civil servants are living in moments of despair and distress, wondering how they will pay their bills and feed their children after November 6th. Fortuño's draconian budget cuts and cancellation of workers' collective bargaining rights in response to the fiscal crisis is not an acceptable solution by the Government to the Island's already under-served citizens. It's up to us to turn up the heat on Congress and demand they hold hearings on Fortuño's anti-American actions: http://action.seiu.org/page/s/PRcivilrights

More on the strike and recent events in Puerto Rico on SEIU's Blog here. More photos from the October 15th strike here.

Enjoy the slideshow from today's strike by workers to protest Gov. Fortuño's layoffs--the largest demonstration in Puerto Rico's history. We'll keep the site and photostream updated as we get more from the ground in Puerto Rico.

Updates on all things Puerto Rico on SEIU's Blog here. You can also follow SEIU on Twitter for updates.

On the morning of day one of the General Strike in Puerto Rico, organizers are already declaring the protest a great success.

Yesterday late in the afternoon, the owners of Plaza las Americas, the largest shopping mall in the Caribbean, announced that it would remain closed on October 15 "due to security reasons." Coincidentally, Plaza las Americas owners also happen to be some of the biggest contributors to the Republican Party and their henchman, Governor Luis Fortuño. So it's very appropriate that the main gathering location of the strike is in front of this very shopping center, to serve as a symbol of the greedy upper class that supports the draconian measures taken by the current Puerto Rican administration.

Two successful events that have already taken place today in the strike include the closing of Plaza Las Americas and more significantly, the defeat of fear. Hundreds of thousands of workers are now marching for justice, overcoming the campaign of media terror launched by the Puerto Rican Government during the last days. Protesters are marching from seven different locations of the Banks Zone in San Juan today, heading towards the southern side of Plaza Las Americas--which is expected to largest public gathering in Puerto Rican history.

Today's national protest is being led by the Todo Puerto Rico Por Puerto Rico, a coalition that is composed of unions, civic, professional, religious, community and other civil society organizations, and includes SEIU Locals 1996SPT and 1199UGT.

It's a very tense evening in Puerto Rico tonight--you can feel it in the streets and towns around the Island. Tomorrow the workers' movement and its allies will face a showdown with the Government police and paramilitary forces, as the general strike called to protest massive layoffs in the public service will begin in the early hours of the day.

Just three weeks ago, Republican governor Luis Fortuño announced that nearly 17,000 public servants would be fired by November 6. In response, several labor unions (SEIU, Change to Win, AFL-CIO, the Puerto Rican Workers Union and more) together with a larger coalition, Todo Puerto Rico Por Puerto Rico, called for a national one day strike.

Since then, the public protest has gathered broad support in all social spheres, while the Government attempts to start a media campaign of terror to prevent its success. First the Fortuño administration stated that participants in the strike might be charged as terrorists under the U.S. Patriot Act, and later that the anti-riot police unit and the National Guard would intervene to "guarantee that all principal routes are clear and not obstructed by protesters."

Augmenting the tense atmosphere felt throughout the country this week: the surprising announcement of the closure of all nine state university campuses--allegedly to prevent "terrorist activities" related to the general strike.

As of all this has been going on and hundreds of thousands prepare to protest, Governor Fortuño has managed to fill up his daily schedule. Negotiating with workers, you ask? Not quite. In an intense media blitz, Fortuño appeared on what to seem like every TV news program in Puerto Rico, making his not-so-very-subtle threats suitably known to the workers' unions and its allies: "The police and the National Guard troops will be ready to intervene in your protest."

The fear campaign extended to the private sector, where the Manufacturers Association, the Chamber of Commerce and Construction Enterprises joined together to issue a public announcement against the strike; assuring anyone listening that it will provoke an economic disaster and calling on the government to show a hand of steel against protesters.

In the meantime, the SPT (SEIU Local 1996) and UGT (SEIU Local 1199) members and leaders have been preparing all the details for a massive mobilization of citizens and workers to participate in the October 15 strike. Both union headquarters were a seething mass of members getting ready for the big day.

This we know: it will be a long and tense night. But then dawn will come, and it will be greeted by the sound of "panderos" [tambourines] and thousands upon thousands of people chanting slogans demanding "Work, Not Welfare!" And as the crowd grows larger and stronger there will be no fear, because solidarity will take its place.