Puerto Rican leaders are trying to restructure a $70 billion public debt following decades of mismanagement, corruption and excessive borrowing that forced the government to declare the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. Pierluisi’s actions only fanned anger among other government employees, with some demanding their own pay increases as others fumed over the governor’s recent comment that no one is forced to become a firefighter or police officer.Ī problem is that all those increases promised by Pierluisi rely on federal funds that expire in upcoming years, and many people did not believe the governor when he promised to find local funds to make the increases permanent. Shortly afterward, he promised a $500 monthly increase for firefighters and a 30% raise for paramedics. He expanded the offer to school principals, regional superintendents and others just days later. 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. “It’s extremely difficult to survive on that.”
It's a life that is exhausting and not sustainable, he said.īut with paramedics in Puerto Rico earning a base salary of $1,725 a month, he said he has no choice. Many public employees work one or two additional jobs to make ends meet.Ĭarlos Javier Vázquez, for one, is a paramedic in the mountain town of Barranquitas, and he also teaches emergency medicine and operates an ambulance company to help support his wife and four children. 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. 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. Power and water bills are nearly 60% higher in Puerto Rico than the U.S. 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. Legislators are the only public workers who have an automatic cost-of-living increase for their salaries. We can make this happen,” said Abner Dumey, who teaches history in the northern town of Naranjito. Protests have multiplied and the unrest is posing one of the biggest challenges for Gov.
We support, sponsor, write and showcase current events in the Arts, history, politics as well as community service.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. This is proof that the Puerto Rican Parade is far reaching and extends to the diversity New York City is comprised of. We welcome the love we are getting from the Hip Hop community and should also remember to recognize the influence of Hip Hop in the Latino community. To my surprise this brief 1:13s video has taken Pa’lante’s Youtube channel to new “traffic” heights.
A fan alerted us that our video was being shared on Banks’ wall. All this surge was thanks to Lloyd Banks, who is half Puerto Rican and African American, shared the video on his Facebook wall. Additionally, the video got tweeted and embedded on websites such as, , and. Since the upload, it received 5,274 views so far and over a thousand shares on Facebook (and counting). I started recording and created a minute long video of Joell Ortiz, Angie Martinez and Lloyd Banks exciting the crowd, yesterday, at the National Puerto Rican Day Parade in NYC. I immediately raised my camera ready for a shot when the float stopped dead in front of us. I looked to see who was on the float and the first person I noticed was Joell Ortiz. We were lucky. The Hot 97 float was coming up from 53rd.
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