From: "Curtis Price" <cansv-AT-igc.apc.org>
Date:          Mon, 14 Jul 1997 11:28:39 +0000
Subject: AUT: (Fwd) Telephone workers walk off job in Puerto Rico, protest p


------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date:          Fri, 11 Jul 1997 15:38:02 -0700
From:          NewsHound <NewsHound-AT-hound.com>

Reply-to:      NewsHound-AT-hound.com
Subject:       Telephone workers walk off job in Puerto Rico, protest privatization



NewsHound article from "STRIKES" hound, score "75."



Telephone >>workers<< walk off job in Puerto Rico, protest privatization

BY MARIBEL HERNANDEZ
Associated Press Writer


SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- Defying orders to show up for work, more than
5,000 Puerto Rico Telephone Company employees marched Friday to protest the
proposed sale of the government-owned company.

``Say no! Say no to the sale!'' union members chanted in front of the
Capitol, as lawmakers inside held hearings on the $1 billion-a-year
enterprise that employs 8,000 >>workers<<.

Prior to a change in U.S. law in 1996, the company had a monopoly on
telephone service in this American commonwealth of 3.8 million people. Now,
it faces competition from private firms.

Company director Carmen Ana Culpeper, recently appointed by Gov. Pedro
Rossello, has told lawmakers the company cannot compete successfully and
should be privatized.

Rossello, whose party controls both houses of the legislature, backs the
sale.

The opposition Popular Democratic Party, which now opposes the sale, tried
to sell the company when it was in power in the early 1990s, but placed so
many restrictions on the sale it was not able to find a buyer.

The 24-hour >>strike<< called by the unions meant no crews were available
to repair outages.



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