UPR employees’ union warns it could activate strike vote
By THE STAR STAFF
Hilda Torres Guzmán, president of the Brotherhood of Non-Teaching Exempt Employees (HEEND by its acronym in Spanish), warned that the union could activate the strike vote approved by its members if the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) and fiscal authorities do not facilitate the implementation of the 2024-2027 collective bargaining agreement and the Classification and Compensation Plan.
“We want to tell the UPR, the Governor’s Mansion, and the [Financial Oversight and Management] Board that the Brotherhood’s membership has had enough,” Torres Guzmán stated. “We approved a strike vote by an overwhelming majority at the assembly on September 25th, and we don’t want to implement it, but they are leaving us with no alternatives.”
The union leader added that the agreement was approved and signed in May 2024, but it has not yet been put into effect, a situation she attributed to non-compliance by the university administration and the Office of Management and Budget.
Torres Guzmán said the lack of implementation is adversely affecting the economic benefits of thousands of university workers, while the agreement is nearing its expiration in May 2027.
“It is inconceivable that the UPR and the Oversight Board are passing the buck from letter to letter, when the collective bargaining agreement was approved in May 2024 and, as proof of their irresponsibility, it expires next May without having been implemented,” she stated. “We are supposed to already be negotiating the next one, from 2027 to 2030.”
The HEEND president alleged that the oversight board recently conditioned its approval of the agreement on the approval of the Classification and Compensation Plan, the implementation of which would require the UPR to identify its own resources to fulfill both commitments.
According to the union, the plan represents a budgetary impact of more than $60 million, which would have to be covered with funds from a university that has faced budget cuts.
“Under the PROMESA Act, the Oversight Board prohibited the government from negotiating salary increases until the classification plans were updated, with the commitment that it would allocate the necessary fiscal resources to make them viable,” Torres Guzmán stated.
The union leader questioned the current requirement for the institution to set aside funds from its budget to finance the plan, despite budget cuts that, she asserted, threaten its operations.
In a communication sent to the oversight board on Friday, the UPR administration indicated that it currently has no funds allocated to the Classification and Compensation Plan, although it included a certification quantifying the resources needed for the collective bargaining agreement, according to HEEND.
Furthermore, Torres Guzmán stated, the union, along with other university unions, submitted a resolution to Gov. Jenniffer González Colón and subsequently requested a meeting to present their demands, without receiving a response to either request.
The HEEND represents some 4,000 administrative, office and technical employees of the UPR.
