On Sun, 1 Oct 2017, valdis.kletni...@vt.edu wrote:
I haven't seen any reports of a Teamster union refusal. I *have* seen
reports that only 10-30% of truck drivers are operational, because of
one or more of:
You're lucky. The bots have been pushing this very hard for several days.
I don't know the local context or groups involved. There are at least two
different groups
1. Frente Amplio de Camioneros led by Victor Rodriguez
There are a couple of videos of interviews with Mr. Rodriguez. Like many
people in Puerto Rico, Mr. Rodriguez is very upset. I don't know him well
enough to understand if those videos were in the heat of the moment, or
accurately reflect what's happening.
2. Union de Tronquistas de Puerto Rico local 901 afiliada I.B.T. led by
Alexis Rodriguez
The AFL-CIO teamsters put out a statement today:
https://teamster.org/news/2017/10/teamsters-denounce-false-reports-work-stoppage-union-drivers-puerto-rico
Some of the re-posts are using a partial quote from Colonel Michael A.
Valle, responsible for military logistics in Puerto Rico, that only 20%
of the drivers are showing up for work. What the re-posts omitted is the
rest of Col. Valle's quote:
“There should be zero blame on the drivers. They can’t get to work, the
infrastructure is destroyed, they can’t get fuel themselves, and they
can’t call us for help because there’s no communication. The will of the
people of Puerto Rico is off the charts. The truck drivers have families
to take care of, many of them have no food or water. They have to take
care of their family’s needs before they go off to work, and once they do
go, they can’t call home.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/us-military-on-puerto-rico-the-problem-is-distribution_us_59ce5906e4b0f3c468060dee
In a disaster situation, even simple problems become much more
complicated. Just as important during a disaster, don't attribute to
malice what could be a misunderstanding or communication problem. People
in the disaster zone are under a lot of stress.
