FMPR teachers fight repression, grow stronger

San Juan, Puerto Rico—The Service Employees International Union’s (SEIU) convention began this Saturday, May 31, under a total state of siege. More than 100 police, private security agents and government anti-riot units blocked all entrances and established a perimeter of control in the immediate area surrounding Puerto Rico’s Convention Center.

SEIU delegates were transported in buses and the convention organizers prevented them from coming and going freely. The phrase “Justice for all” in reality was “Repression for all” as the strong police presence and the beating of demonstrators at the convention entrance reflected the moral deterioration of the premier leader of SEIU. It appears that SEIU President Andy Stern’s continuing alliance with the bosses has led him to employ the same repressive tactics that they use against striking workers.

At midmorning, hundreds of members of the Federación de Maestros de Puerto Rico (FMPR) met in front of the Convention Center’s principal entrance with a banner that read: “Let’s Support Federación de Maestros, Stop Union Raid!”

The FMPR is a union that represents 40,000 Puerto Rican teachers. The Federación is under attack because it has opposed the neoliberal policies implemented by the governor of Puerto Rico, Aníbal Acevedo Vilá, and because of a successful strike it carried out in February 2008 in which some 26,000 teachers participated with wide community support.

At 11:30 a.m., the FMPR demonstrators forced their way to the Convention Center. In spite of police beatings, pushing and aggression, the teachers succeeded in breaking the blockade at the principal entrance. Once there, they set up a picket line, distributed leaflets and spoke with hundreds of SEIU delegates.

The Federación stated: “We fulfilled our objectives despite the police repression. First, we denounced the union raiding and SEIU bureaucrats’ alliance with the bosses. Second, we spoke with delegates and succeeded in getting their support.”

SEIU’s internal opposition and dozens of SEIU delegates showed their support for the Federación, noting that many of their own SEIU locals in the States have had experiences with the International similar to the FMPR’s.

Last year SEIU established an alliance with the government/employer and the ruling Popular Democratic Party (PPD)—Gov. Acevedo Vilá’s party. The goal was to raid the existing teachers’ union (FMPR) by using an organization of directors and supervisors, called La Asociación, which actually operates as a political arm of the PPD in the Department of Education.

Dennis Rivera, vice president of SEIU, is one of the principal fundraisers for Gov. Acevedo Vilá’s re-election campaign and he was the person, along with Roberto Pagán, another SEIU vice president, who planned to destroy the FMPR through a decertification. In December 2007, La Asociación affiliated with SEIU and on Jan. 8, 2008, the FMPR was decertified, a full month before the teachers’ strike in February.

The Federación de Maestros is a democratic, combative union with extensive community support. The president of the FMPR, Rafael Feliciano, elected by the direct vote of thousands of teachers, indicated that “La Federación de Maestros will prevail because it is a tool of struggle for the Puerto Rican teachers.”

—Federación de Maestros, Puerto Rico (FMPR)