UPR strikes collide with International Workers’ Day mobilizations.
- The San Juan Daily Star
- 10 hours ago
- 2 min read
By THE STAR STAFF
Work stoppages and strikes at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) are colliding with this year’s International Workers’ Day mobilizations, as unions and community groups prepare to march May 1 with renewed calls to curb austerity measures and pressure university leadership to step aside.
Organizers say this year’s march will again center on opposition to Puerto Rico’s Financial Oversight and Management Board, created under the PROMESA law, arguing that a decade of fiscal control has deepened cuts to public services and strained working families.
Labor leaders and retiree organizations are expected to join the demonstration to demand stronger enforcement of worker protections and timely payment of pensions.
“There are many reasons to march on May 1. It has been 10 years since the board was imposed, and they said they were going to solve the economic problem,” said Pedro Pastrana, a spokesperson for the Retirees and Pensioners Chapter of the Puerto Rican Teachers Federation. “Instead, we are seeing the economic squeeze we warned about.”
The protests come as UPR campuses face escalating student-led work stoppages and strikes demanding the resignation of university president Zayira Jordán Conde. The actions have spread across the system in recent weeks amid anger over governance decisions, leadership shakeups and long-running concerns about funding and institutional autonomy.
On the Carolina campus, students voted Wednesday to begin a 72-hour work stoppage starting Monday, joining a wider wave of campus actions that have criticized what they describe as opaque decision-making, the sidelining of university bodies and a pattern of austerity-driven restructuring.
Student groups and some faculty leaders have also pointed to earlier controversies surrounding Jordán Conde’s tenure, including the removal or requested resignations of several campus chancellors and disputes over financial messaging, academic program closures and the handling of the university’s retirement system. The administration has defended the changes as necessary to stabilize operations, while critics say they deepen mistrust and weaken shared governance.
Separately, the city of Mayagüez is preparing to host students from universities across the island for the 2026 LAI Justas this weekend, a major interuniversity athletics event that draws large crowds.
Mayagüez plans security operation for LAI Justas Mayor Jorge Ramos Ruiz said the municipality has expanded its video-surveillance network and will deploy additional mobile camera towers in and around Mayagüez as part of a broader, multi-agency security plan for the six-day competition and nighttime events.