Public Employee Press

Unions push to help Puerto Rico

By ALFREDO ALVARADO

Pressure continues to mount to force the do-nothing U.S. Congress in Washington to help Puerto Rico weather a financial storm that threatens to leave the Caribbean island with a depleted municipal workforce, reduced salaries and a public infrastructure scraped to the bone.

The Puerto Rican government's inability to pay its $73 billion dollar debt and Washington's refusal to address the crisis have resulted in mass layoffs and forced 260,000 Puerto Ricans to leave the island for the mainland since the last census.

"We are all Puerto Ricans in this situation," said DC 37 Executive Director Henry Garrido, during a forum he moderated Oct. 29 at union headquarters to discuss the crisis.

"This is not just about bankruptcy," said City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito. "This is a humanitarian crisis. And it is getting worse by the minute."

The speaker called on Congress to extend Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection to Puerto Rico, which would help the island restructure the debt. Under the federal bankruptcy code, stateside cities can declare bankruptcy - like Detroit did in 2013 - but Puerto Rico does not have that right.

Puerto Ricans are American citizens and deserve equal treatment, Mark-Viverito said. She also called for the island's Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement rates to be increased to match the rates in the United States.

Medicaid accounts for $25 billion of the $73 billion debt, because the Puerto Rican government has had to borrow to make up for a funding gap. More than 60 percent of Puerto Ricans are enrolled in Medicaid or Medicare. Medicare Advantage plans, which cover 75 percent of the islanders enrolled in Medicaid, face 11 percent in cuts next year.

"The only solution the governor has proposed is higher taxes, cutting salaries and pensions and more layoffs," said Annette Gonzalez Perez, president of the island's Council 95, an affiliate of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, DC 37's parent union. Gonzalez thanked DC 37 and other union and community activists for all of their support during the crisis.

Shirley Aldebol, a vice president of SEIU 32BJ and a former Local 371 vice president, and Julio Lopez Varona, from Make the Road, urged activists to continue pressing their legislators in Washington to address the crisis.

In September several Hispanic members of Congress reached out to U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, urging him to intervene. "The Treasury Dept. should bring creditors and debtors to the table to resolve this immediately, just as they did during the financial crisis of 2008," said Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-NY).