Employees represented by the Union of Workers of the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) called this Tuesday an indefinite strike that will begin on Wednesday.
The movement stems from the alleged non-compliance by the university administration with respect to the agreements reached in February of this year, focused on the economic improvement and working conditions of the union members.
“After a strike in February, we brought the administration and Luis Ferrao, president of the UPR, to the table. Starting tomorrow, with the start of the semester, a strike will begin throughout the university system. The union will not allow the administration to continue gambling with the economic stability of a third of the workers, many of whom earn wages of less than $9.50 an hour,” declared David Muñoz, president of the union at a press conference.
For his part, the president of the UPR, Luis Ferrao, asked the Fiscal Control Board (JCF) to accelerate the salary increase to 1,430 employees.
“The call from the Workers Union this morning is unfortunate,” Ferrao commented in written statements.
“I urge the Fiscal Oversight Board to expedite the process for the minimum wage of 9.50 dollars for our employees,” emphasized the president of the UPR.
The budgetary impact of this measure would be $5,300,000. In addition, he pointed out that the implementation will be done retroactively from July 1, 2023.
“I ask employees to balance their right to demonstrate with the start of classes,” said Ferrao, and urged to maintain open communications and peaceful protests, “thinking about student welfare.”
