Puerto Rican VA Hospital Workers Unionize and Demand Labor Justice

More than 100 workers who provide cleaning services to the island’s veteran hospitals have organized to demand protection from mistreatment and better working conditions.

In Puerto Rico, employees of OSDBJV2 Janitorial Services, which is the largest federal janitorial contractor in Puerto Rico, have unionized to negotiate better working conditions.

Some 155 employees are in charge of providing cleaning services at the VA Caribbean Healthcare System in San Juan and its clinics in Mayagüez and Ponce.

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In early July, the workers joined the Local 1996/SPT-SEIU of the Puerto Rican Society of Workers Union (SPT by its Spanish initials), despite opposition from their employer. 

Mariel Vilches, a janitor at the San Juan VA hospital, who is a mother of three, was one of the leaders in the fight to form a union.

“In March, we were presented with the opportunity for the union to represent us and we received it with enthusiasm and certain reservation, in order to defend our rights and working conditions. And also respect, because [our employer is] quite arbitrary and subjective, and that is why we decided to organize ourselves,” Vilches told Floricua. 

SPT’s local president, Israel Marrero, told Floricua that in addition to the economic conditions, the workers also wanted to seek protection from the alleged mistreatment and abuse they endured from the contractor company.

Unions Are Having a Boom

The Puerto Rican janitorial workers are in step with a nationwide trend. Employees from companies across the country are increasingly organizing to ask for more benefits, pay, and better safety conditions at work.

According to data from the US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), between October 2021 and March of this year, union representation petitions filed at the board increased by 57% compared to the same period the previous year.

Workers of companies such as Starbucks, Amazon, and Google have joined unions. A poll conducted last September by the analytic firm Gallup showed that 68% percent of Americans approve of labor unions, the highest rate since 71% in 1965.

According to experts from the NLRB, there are different factors driving this trend. 

The COVID-19 pandemic is one of the biggest causes of the union increase, according to experts from the NLRB.

The political environment is also motivating workers to organize. President Joe Biden promised he will be the “most pro-union president ever” and has expressed his support for the PRO Act, which seeks to make the unionization process easier and less bureaucratic.

Labor Justice Has Not Reached All Essential Workers

Workers in Puerto Rico have faced additional obstacles because they have not always had the same benefits and compensation as their colleagues in the US.

Marrero remembers that in 2014, President Barack Obama signed an executive order to raise the salary of federal contract workers from $7.25 per hour to $10.10 per hour, but Puerto Rico and the rest of the US territories were excluded from that benefit.

History was about to repeat itself when last January Biden increased the minimum wage for federal contractors to $15 an hour.

“We realized that a similar ordinance was now being tested for federal government contractors and likewise excluded Puerto Rico. Due to efforts made by our outgoing president, Roberto Pagán, with SIU (Seafarers International Union), Puerto Rico was incorporated,” Marrero said.

The OSDBJV2 employees will receive the salary increase on Oct. 1, when the company’s federal contract is renewed.

Important Economic Boost

This salary increase couldn’t come at a better time for Vilches and her family.

“Receiving this increase means a lot and is a relief in the face of the rise in electricity, gasoline, and food. It is a relief for my family, my children, to be able to get ahead while everything improves,” Vilches told Floricua.

Vilches says that despite the fact that she and her colleagues have been at the frontline since the pandemic began, along with the rest of the essential workers, they did not receive the incentives that first responders had.

“At the incentive level, we did not receive anything in earthquakes, hurricanes, or with the pandemic. Not even the COVID incentives that many first responders received, despite the fact that we were always working from day one. We never stopped the service,” said Vilches.

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Vilches stressed that she and her colleagues are very responsible and efficient, to the point that their work has been recognized nationwide by The Joint Commission, which accredits more than 22,000 US healthcare organizations and programs.

“We have been nationally recognized by the Joint Commission as one of the cleanest hospitals in the nation because we are committed workers. And we want to be treated with fairness and respect,” Vilches said.