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 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.

When security guard Richard Ruiz expressed frustration over he and his coworkers' unsuccessful efforts to form a union in their workplace to Miami New Times' blog Riptide, he was simply trying to give a voice to their struggle.

In January, about seventy-five percent of the Security Alliance guards signed cards to form a union with SEIU--but since that time, he and the 50 or so security guards employed by Security Alliance of Florida in the Miami Beach area had been experiencing intimidation, scare tactics and harassment at the hands of their employer for exercising their rights to organize. Ruiz was the only one out of his coworkers who was willing to speak about their efforts to form a union on the record.

His reward for having the courage to speak out for what he believes in? Losing his job. "We are trying to make this city safer for everybody, but I was fired when they found out I was speaking out and wanted a union," said Richard Ruiz, who was terminated after working for more than two years for Security Alliance. "Employers shouldn't stop decent people from trying to have a better life."

Paul Begala has an incredibly powerful and persuasive op-ed in Politico today making the case for the Employee Free Choice Act. After introducing nightmare hypothetical scenarios of workers getting fired for trying to organize, Begala pulls back the curtain and reveals the stories are about real workers who were fighting for better jobs.

All of these stories are absolutely true. The stories of Trish Miechur, the CNA, and Corey Kresse, the metalworker, are replicated in boardrooms and factories across America. The story of Ken Lewis, Bank of America's CEO? Well, that's a familiar one, too. So here's the question: Why are their experiences so different? Whom do we want our economic policies to benefit?

For eight years under the GOP, economic policy gave CEOs such as Ken Lewis the gold mine, while giving hardworking, middle-class Americans such as Trish and Corey the shaft. President Barack Obama and the Democratic Congress were elected to change that, and protecting employees from corporate abuses is part of the change we need. That's what the Employee Free Choice Act will do.

Corporate lobbyists say the phrase "Employee Free Choice Act" as though it were a curse. But for Trish and Corey, it's a blessing. The point of the Employee Free Choice Act is to say that we've had enough of an economy that works for Ken Lewis -- and Bernie Madoff, for that matter. We want an economy that works for Trish Miechur and Corey Kresse.

The Employee Free Choice Act gives workers an opportunity to bargain with their employers for better job security, wages and health care at a time of astounding corporate greed. The legislation has three main parts: 1) It says that when a majority of workers want to form a union, a real path is provided for them to do so -- a path chosen by workers, not corporate special interests; 2) it penalizes employers who try to fire or harass workers for attempting to form a union; and 3) it says that once workers have voted for a union, employers have to come to agreement with workers on a contract. Simple stuff, right?

So why are corporate interests squealing like a pig stuck under a gate? Maybe because they're the only ones who prospered under the Bush-Lewis-Madoff policies.

As of now, it's unclear when the Employee Free Choice Act will be given a vote in Congress. Recent press stories, based largely around anonymous comments from Democratic aides, has suggested that it is unlikely the bill will get a vote any time soon--and especially not prior to the completion of healthcare reform.

But legislative delays don't diminish the moral and economic imperative for sweeping labor reform and as a result, we must continue to call on Congress to pass the Employee Free Choice Act with majority sign-up. As Begala notes, this popular piece of legislation will get America's economy moving again, so we have no time to lose.

We just sent out this email about the outrageous editorial the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette published this week. Read the email and then use the tool to write a letter to the editor--we must take a stand for workers in Arkansas.