Last stand for WIPR employees--Union leaders and station workers protest privatization of the CPB

[TexasTowelie]

Union leaders and station workers protest privatization of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting


A caravan composed of more than 50 automobiles carrying more than 100 demonstrators in total drove Thursday from WIPR headquarters in Hato Rey to the Capitol building in Old San Juan as a show of opposition to the order to turn over the government-operated Puerto Rico Corporation for Public Broadcasting into private hands.

WIPR, as it is commonly known, was ordered to be turned over to private hands by the federal Financial Oversight and Management Board. Although the island government has missed several deadlines to do so, Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced said last week that they already had a proposal
to do so and that her administration would comply with the oversight board order.

Gerson Guzmán, president of the General Workers Union, said the more than 80 union employees at WIPR are feeling saddened and stressed by the difficult situation.

“There is a total sense of uncertainty. We don’t know how they [the government] are planning to do it, or when, or what will happen with the specialized personnel who work at the station,” Guzmán said. “There is no reason to turn the station over to private industry hands.”

Read more: http://www.sanjuanweeklypr.com/pdf/May-22-20/local.pdf
(Page 4 of 5)