1998 Puerto Rican general strike
In the 1940s, the Puerto Rican government enacted a series of laws designed to make telephone access more available in the eastern part of the island and allowed the state to play more of a role in providing service.
[2] In February 1990, Governor Hernández Colón – serving his third and final term – proposed the sale of the PRTC to Bell Atlantic (which merged with GTE in 2000 to create Verizon Communications).
[3] When the US Congress passed the Telecommunications Act of 1996, Puerto Rico's telephone market – like many others in the US – was deregulated, causing an influx of competitors to what had previously been a PRTC monopoly.
In 1995 the government sold its Puerto Rico Maritime Shipping company, and a number of local government-owned farms, hotels, and mills were also privatized in the early part of the decade.
[7] Although the PRTC — which made a profit of US$130 million in 1996[5] – was providing "generally good" telephone service and using "modern equipment" (in the words of the conservative National Center for Policy Analysis),[8] some considered it to be inefficient and ill-equipped for competition in the growing wireless market.
Victor Garcia, minority leader of the Puerto Rican Independence Party, said the PRTC had "the most advanced telecommunications infrastructure in the Caribbean" and that "its markets are growing and its competitive position is good.
[11] Some Puerto Ricans saw the proposal as an attempt to gain favor with mainland US business interests, to promote Rosselló's declared goal of statehood for the commonwealth.
[12] Clashes between striking workers and police became more violent on 22 June when officers beat a group of strikers unconscious as members of the press watched.
In the southern town of Santa Isabel, a bomb concealed in a flashlight exploded in the hands of a police officer, severing a finger and wounding his leg.
[14] Elsewhere at the end of June, telephone and optic fiber cables were cut, causing service losses to over 300,000 customers and half of the island's ATMs.
[ED-LP 7/10/98] Many analysts feel that Rossello and the PNP are pushing for the PRTC privatization as part of their effort to have Puerto Rico join the US as a state.
On June 29 Anibal Acevedo Vila—president of the Popular Democratic Party (PPD), which supports maintaining Puerto Rico's current "commonwealth" status—introduced aproposal in the Chamber of Representatives for a referendum on the PRTC sale; the PNP majority defeated the motion.
[Article by Jose Fortuno for a-infos 7/2/98] The government has started a public relations campaign to counteract "negative images" in the US resulting from the general strike.
[6] Traffic to the Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport was brought to a halt by the strike when activists erected barricades on the road leading to the terminal.
'"[16] When the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved the sale in 1999, the GTE consortium named Jon E. Slater as the new PRTC president and CEO.
[17] While the strike-ending agreement forbade reprisals against workers, the president of the Government Development Bank, Marcos Rodriguez-Ema, admitted before the strike that the new PRTC owners would impose "voluntary layoffs, shifting of employees from subsidiaries to other companies, and early retirement".
