WNU #1006: Puerto Rican Unions Plan Strike

Weekly News Update on the Americas
Issue #1006, October 4, 2009

1. Puerto Rico: Plan 1-Day Strike Against Layoffs
2. Mexico: Government to Bust Electrical Workers?
3. Honduras: Maquila Owners Call for Intervention
4. Brazil: Activists Call for End of Haiti Occupation
5. Links to alternative sources on: Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico

ISSN#: 1084‑922X. Weekly News Update on the Americas covers news from Latin America and the Caribbean, compiled and written from a progressive perspective. It has been published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York since 1990. For a subscription, write to weeklynewsupdate [at] gmail.com . It is archived at http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com/

*1. Puerto Rico: Plan 1-Day Strike Against Layoffs
Four Puerto Rican union leaders chained themselves to the gates of the Fortaleza, the governor’s official residence, in San Juan on Sept. 28 to protest plans to lay off 16,970 of the island’s 180,000 public employees. About 30 other unionists set up what they called a “Camp of Dignity and Shame” outside the 16th-century fortress. After a brief scuffle, police agents dispersed the group, which included members of the General Workers Union (UGT) and Robert Pagán, president of Local 1996SPT of the US-based Service Employers International Union (SEIU). No arrests or injuries were reported. Pagán promised that this was just the first of “dozens of civil disobedience actions” against the layoffs.

In a separate incident on the same day, a protester threw an egg at Gov. Luis Fortuño during a public event in the coastal city of Fajardo. The egg missed the governor, and the man who threw it was detained, but the incident inspired protesters to throw what they called “the avenging egg” at effigies of Fortuño during demonstrations later in the week. [...]

Read the full Update:
http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com/2009/10/wnu-1006-puerto-rican-unions-plan.html