Yesterday, March 5, the Delegate Assembly of New York City’s United Federation of Teachers (UFT) declared its solidarity with the striking teachers in Puerto Rico.  Close to 1,000 delegates voted unanimously for a motion calling to “support the Puerto Rican teachers in their struggle to be treated with dignity.” The UFT is the largest union in NYC, representing some 92,000 teachers and paraprofessionals educating more than 1 million students, as well as being the largest affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT).

UFT president Randi Weingarten opened the discussion by introducing Normahiram Rodríguez-Pérez, a member of the UFT and former union delegate of the Puerto Rican Teachers Federation (FMPR, by its initials in Spanish).  Rodríguez-Pérez told the delegates of the struggle of the FMPR, an independent union with 42,000 members, the largest on the island, which walked out on February 21 in defiance of Law 45 outlawing strikes by public sector workers. In ten days on the picket lines, dozens of strikers have been arrested by the Puerto Rican Police, which deployed its riot police units against the peaceful picketers, mostly women.

Delegates warmly applauded their colleague from Puerto Rico as she noted that the women strikers were displaying tremendous courage and setting an example in this week honoring working women. (International Women’s Day is celebrated internationally on March 8.) They applauded again as Rodríguez-Pérez stressed that the teachers were fighting for their students, for smaller class sizes and against so-called “charter schools” and other forms of privatizing public education. She thanked the UFT for its solidarity, and noted that the battle was on against the Puerto Rican government’s “decertification” of the FMPR.

Last week, another affiliate of the AFT in NYC, the Professional Staff Congress (PSC), also approved a motion of solidarity with the Puerto Rican teachers. The PSC Delegate Assembly, representing 20,000 faculty and staff at the City University of New York (CUNY), voted unanimously to “participate in strike support and solidarity efforts on behalf of the striking teachers of the FMPR,” condemned the Puerto Rican government’s attacks on labor rights and the integrity of public education, called for overturning the decertification of the union, and demanded an end to police repression and that no charges be made against arrested strikers.

PSC delegates raised over $650 to send to the strikers, while PSCers joined in two demonstrations called by the FMPR Support Committee outside Puerto Rican government offices in NYC on February 22 and March 4.  In addition, strike support events have been held on ten CUNY campuses. The Puerto Rican teachers’ strike also received favorable coverage on WBAI radio and in the local Spanish-language press (El Diario-La Prensa).  In addition, a Daily News column by Juan Gonzalez exposed the shameful actions of SEIU Vice-president Dennis Rivera in attacking the FMPR in collusion with Puerto Rico’s Governor Aníbal Acevedo Vilá.