On Feb. 21, the Federation of Puerto Rican Teachers (FMPR) along with other sectors of the labor force, students and parents shut down Puerto Rico’s public education system. The leadership of the 42,000-member union called the strike after 30 months—nearly three years—of failed negotiations.
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The FMPR’s three major demands are higher pay, a cap on class sizes and the creation of a teachers’ committee granting teachers greater autonomy in developing class curriculum and schedules. This last demand aims to decentralize the decision-making process currently in the hands of Puerto Rico’s colonial government.
Teachers are bringing attention to deteriorating schools, overcrowded classrooms and shortages of books and materials. They are seeking overall improvements to the working conditions of Puerto Rican teachers and students. Puerto Rican public school teachers, working without a contract for more than two years, earn a starting yearly salary of US$19,200—less than in any U.S. state.
FMPR President Rafael Feliciano accused police of being overly forceful with the protestors and had vowed that striking teachers would not tolerate abuse. “If they assault us, we will defend ourselves,” he added. Feliciano went on to say that after almost three years of patiently negotiating, striking was the only alternative left.
Puerto Rican law forbids the disruption of the public education system, rendering the strike illegal. Protestors knew they would meet harsh repression, yet they did not back away. According to the FMPR, 90 percent of the islands 1,500 schools were successfully shut down.
The governor, Anibal Acevedo Vila, obtained court approval to decertify the union in January, after the union’s members voted to authorize a strike in November 2007. However, the hardships imposed upon teachers—including particularly harsh anti-labor legal provisions in effect in the U.S. colony—may have precipitated the teachers’ vote to return to work.
Despite the end of the strike, FMPR chief Rafael Feliciano told union members that he would keep pressing the government to meet their demands and warned a work stoppage could resume.
“This does not mean that the federation is abandoning the strike,” Feliciano said. “But a recess is recommended at this time.”
A front in a larger struggle
To see this as just a struggle for teacher’s rights would be incorrect. The FMPR struggle is implicitly and explicitly part of Puerto Rico’s overall anti-colonial struggle.
The people of Puerto Rico have lived under colonial rule since the Spanish crown’s 1493 invasion, passing over to U.S. colonial rule in 1898.
In the 1898 invasion, the invading wave of U.S. Marines was followed by a wave of U.S. teachers. Most native Puerto Rican teachers were fired after the incursion. Racist, white southern teachers replaced native teachers, educating Puerto Rican youth on American culture instead of their African-Taino-Spanish ancestry. They taught the native population in English, not Spanish.
The U.S. ruling class used the Marines to kill Puerto Ricans physically and used the U.S. teachers to try to kill them psychologically. The intent was to destroy a people’s identity and turn them into subservient colonial subjects. That project has failed, but we still see remnants of that colonial tactic today.
In 1997, the U.S. Congress attempted to pass legislation imposing English-only teaching in public schools. Today, despite the fact that 80 percent of the population speaks only Spanish, English is the second “official” language in Puerto Rico.
All of this falls in line with the pattern of colonial subjugation. The Puerto Rican colonial government was confronted head-to-head by students and teachers of the FMPR who vowed to resist that racist policy.
The FMPR formerly belonged to the American Federation of Teachers. An alien entity to the people of Puerto Rico, the AFT has been imposing decisions onto the FMPR, ultimately the people of Puerto Rico since it began working in the island.
After five years of struggle, the FMPR broke away from the AFT in 2005 because Puerto Rican teachers, who are paid on average a third less than their mainland counterparts, were paying the same union dues but receiving little to no benefits. Whatever the Puerto Rican people ask for, even what they pay for, not only in education but all sectors of society, has to be fought for every step of the way. The present strike is no different.
The National Labor Relations Board has increased its attempts to take legal action against the FMPR. This is done with the full support of various state senators and congressmen.
U.S. workers must extend solidarity, support
Disgracefully, another U.S. union, the Service Employees International Union, has stepped in to help break up the FMPR, collaborating with Gov. Acevedo, to try to replace it with “The Union of Puerto Rican Teachers.” That group was announced as a “subsidiary” of a management association representing school principals and supervisors, called the Puerto Rican Teachers Association.
Aida Díaz, president of the principals association, announced this union-busting maneuver in a press conference in January. Alongside her was Dennis Rivera, an SEIU vice-president in New York City who engineered the transfer to the SEIU, with an upcoming decertification election. The FMPR is prohibited from participating in that election.
At stake in this battle is not only the right of teachers to strike for themselves and their students. It is also the right of the Puerto Rican workers—part of a nation long oppressed by U.S. imperialism—to decide for themselves their relationship to the United States. That includes their relationship with the unions based in that oppressor country.
Whether to affiliate or separate, that is the Puerto Rican people’s choice to make. Of course, separation does not mean the end of international solidarity among the workers of both countries. In fact, with mutual respect and recognition, the unity is on more solid ground.
When the members of the FMPR made a decision to form an independent union, because of their longstanding and justified grievances against the AFT, it was a concrete act of self-determination that every United States labor union should welcome and support. The 92,000-member New York City’s United Federation of Teachers set the example on March 5, when nearly 1,000 delegates voted unanimously for a motion calling to “support the Puerto Rican teachers in their struggle to be treated with dignity.”
This is a struggle between the colonizer and the colonized. The Puerto Rican working class is up against not only the colonial government, but also the U.S. ruling class that stands behind it.
In the United States, solidarity with our sisters and brothers of the FMPR is of great importance. The battle against colonialism is one of many fronts. Puerto Ricans are resilient enough to handle what is thrown at them there, but over here our duty is solidarity. Every U.S. worker must stand side-by-side with the FMPR.
Victory to the Puerto Rican teachers and working class! For a free and independent Puerto Rico!
