AFT/AMPR’s role in the Puerto Rico’s bankruptcy

This was sent as a letter to the editor of Jacobin.

I always admire the passion of an activist, and no doubt Monique Dols is one. I am surprised, however, that even Jacobin, which understands the power that the wealthy, bond and corporate interests have in any bankruptcy process, didn’t do a simple fact check before it published her opinion piece to attack the AFT’s role in working with the Asociación de Maestros de Puerto Rico (AMPR), the Puerto Rican teachers union, in the bankruptcy process. Let me explain.

The Jacobin piece asserts that we are partnering with the Financial Oversight and Management Board, or “junta” as it is called in Puerto Rico, to undermine our members’ pensions and future financial security in the ongoing bankruptcy process. By that measure, any time you are involved in any arm’s length negotiations, including any collective bargaining, it could be viewed as “partnering.”

It’s a patently false portrayal, but it underscores the author’s willingness to misrepresent and smear the critical but difficult work we are doing with AMPR to try to protect the future financial security of our members and to save the public education system in Puerto Rico.

A few facts are essential to understand regarding our involvement in the bankruptcy process and our motivation for the work we are doing in Puerto Rico.

Puerto Rico is $120 billion in debt. It is the largest public bankruptcy in history. Predatory Wall Street banks, congressional policy that undermined Puerto Rico’s economy, and former governors irresponsibly saddled Puerto Rico with debt, and in 2016 Congress passed PROMESA(the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act) to restructure Puerto Rico’s debt.

Former Gov. Ricardo Rossello, before he resigned in scandal, ignored a court order to properly fund the teachers’ pensions, leaving it worth only 4 cents on the dollar, virtually worthless.

While Rossello did nothing to fund our pensions, he was very busy using the pretext of Hurricane Maria to close public schools, start charters and install an education secretary, Julia Keleher, who is now under indictment. He was also relentless in attacking the president of AMPR, Aida Díaz, for both opposing him on all of this and for trying to find ways to deal with the collapse of the pensions, including trying to negotiate with the Fiscal Control Board a better and strategic deal on teacher pensions. Let that sink in. Rossello attacked Díaz for trying to save the teachers’ pensions after he failed to do so.

Her motives were pure: She negotiated with the Fiscal Control Board because, in bankruptcy, the cold, hard reality is that you will get run over by the bondholders. There was no way we were going to sit idly by while Rossello and Wall Street vulture funds were going to rip off our members, further drain our pensions and make healthcare more expensive, while keeping their salaries the same.

The bankruptcy process is painful, and while the judge in this bankruptcy is well-respected and independent, she must first and foremost follow the law and listen to the litany of creditors and debtors, most of whom have high-priced Wall Street firms working for them.

We, unfortunately, know the process of fiscal oversight well. In 1975, during the fiscal crisis in New York, the United Federation of Teachers went on strike for five days to avoid the deep cuts imposed by another fiscal board. Our efforts failed, thousands were laid off, and New York City teachers had to give back gains that took years to gain back. We have never stopped fighting, and the good news is that we have marched back in New York City.

Similarly, in 2013, we worked with our local in Detroit to navigate bankruptcy in Detroit to minimize the painful losses in bankruptcy and defend benefits and retirements. And today, we have recouped all the losses.

Despite the AFT’s advocacy for debt relief in Congress and with groups like Hedge Clippers, bondholders have immense power and influence over the direction of the final deal. That is precisely why we fought like hell for the teachers of Puerto Rico, and we were able to achieve over $1 billion in benefits in the unforgiving bankruptcy process. That’s over $1 billion that would go to teachers’ retirements and healthcare, rather than to Wall Street hedge funds and bondholders.

Some of the important gains negotiated included:

· A plan that helps protect funding for future pension payments.

· Teachers in Puerto Rico shockingly don’t receive Social Security benefits — because of AMPR’s efforts on behalf of teachers, all those 50 and younger would be eligible for Social Security benefits.

· Increasing the government cost share of healthcare.

· $200 million to fund teacher increases and bonuses.

· A five-year enforceable collective bargaining agreement that would allow salary, maternity leave, tenure and other issues to be protected.

None of this would have been achieved had we not aggressively negotiated against the Fiscal Control Board. None of it. And while AMPR members voted narrowly to reject the agreement because the process was rushed and Rossello made promises that he never intended to keep, nearly 10,000 teachers across the island have already, in the last two weeks, urged AMPR leadership to go back and negotiate with the control board, and teachers are still signing petitions in classrooms.

AMPR and the Federación de Maestros de Puerto Rico (FMPR) have been fighting for years to represent Puerto Rico’s teachers. We know — we have been involved with both. Before AMPR represented teachers in Puerto Rico, teachers had not seen a raise in 10 years.

Teachers teach because they love children and want to help them achieve their full potential. In return, they believed they would be treated with some degree of respect, dignity and simple fairness. As even I would hope, FMPR would agree that the teachers of Puerto Rico are heroes for all the hard work and sacrifice they have put in to keep the public schools across the island operating.

And the AFT, working through our locals, has been part of this fight for respect, dignity and simple fairness for our members, whether it is in Puerto Rico, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, Los Angeles or countless other places across the country. That is what the teacher movements over the last couple of years have been about, and we have been on the frontlines of them all.

The same way we work with our locals in Los Angeles and Chicago, we work with our local in Puerto Rico.

When the issue is whether anyone would give Wall Street bankers $1 billion or fight to keep the billion to address pension security, to fund inadequate salaries for our teachers and to provide key resources for our schools, the AFT will always take on this fight for public schools and teachers. And we invite FMPR to join us.