Protests grow in Puerto Rico amid demands for higher wages

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Shrill whistles mixed with drums, tambourines and the clacking of spoons on pots as public employees shut down streets in Puerto Rico's capital to demand better pay and pensions.

The crowd shimmied and clapped as demonstrators held up signs reading, “Fair wages now!”

It's a call that has echoed across Puerto Rico in recent weeks as government employees and supporters take to the streets, emboldened by thousands of public school teachers who abandoned classrooms in early February to demand raises and better pensions.

Protests have multiplied and the unrest is posing one of the biggest challenges for Governor Pedro Pierluisi a year into his term.

“The people kicked the US military out of Vieques. They kicked out a governor. We can make this happen,” said Abner Dumey, who teaches history in the northern town of Naranjito.

Legislators are the only public workers who have an automatic cost-of-living increase for their salaries.

Most of the US territory's other public employees have not gotten pay raises in more than a decade — sometimes two — as the cost of living has risen and the island has suffered a lengthy economic crisis and a government bankruptcy in the aftermath of deadly hurricanes, earthquakes and the pandemic.

Power and water bills are nearly 60% higher in Puerto Rico than the U.S. average. Groceries are 18% more expensive than on the mainland, although health care and housing costs, among others, are lower, according to the island's Institute of Statistics.

Marcia Rivera, an economist and sociologist whose research focuses largely on poverty and inequality, said government workers are grappling with rising prices while getting the same salaries they had in 2008.

“They're fed up,” she said.

Many public employees work one or two additional jobs to make ends meet.

In an attempt to quell the demonstrations, the governor promised teachers a $1,000 monthly increase just days after 70% of them walked out of their classrooms in protest earlier this month. He expanded the offer to school principals, regional superintendents and others just days later.

Shortly afterward, he promised a $500 monthly increase for firefighters and a 30% raise for paramedics.

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