AAA’s executive director says a UIA strike during the drought emergency would disrupt daily operations, as a new Comptroller’s Office audit finds the utility awarded $9.6 million in contracts without reviewing whether the work should have gone to regular staff.
The Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority’s executive director, Luis González Delgado, said Monday that a strike by the Unión Independiente Auténtica (UIA) during the current drought emergency would have real consequences for the utility’s daily operations.
“Certainly, having our UIA colleagues in a strike period during this emergency event — because let’s be clear and categorical about it, we are in an emergency — has an effect on the Authority’s day-to-day operations,” González Delgado told reporters, according to multiple Puerto Rico outlets.
He asked the public to weigh the conditions facing the water system as AAA continues scheduled service interruptions in areas fed by the Carraízo reservoir and the drought continues to worsen.
González Delgado also pointed to AAA’s compensation plan, noting it had already been approved by the utility’s board — pushback on the union’s framing of the dispute after UIA members rejected AAA’s latest economic offer and authorized a strike vote last week.
The warning came the same day new attention turned to a Comptroller’s Office audit, Informe de Auditoría OC-27-24, released Aug. 20, which found AAA awarded two contracts worth more than $9.6 million for revenue-optimization, pressure-management, leak-detection and operational-support work — without the economic analysis required to determine whether the work should have been performed by regular AAA employees.
The audit, covering AAA’s Customer Service, Water Recovery and Non-Revenue Water Recovery offices, found that some contracted personnel performed duties similar to positions already defined in AAA’s own Classification and Compensation Plan — the same plan at the center of the union’s wage dispute — and worked schedules equivalent to regular employees. Some contractors held the same work continuously for between four and 16 years, which the Comptroller’s Office said is characteristic of a regular position, not a professional-services contract. The report also found AAA never prepared the economic analyses required to justify hiring outside contractors instead of staff.
Union leaders have said the findings underscore complaints raised at last week’s assembly in Arecibo, where members voted to authorize a strike after rejecting AAA’s latest economic offer, arguing it is unfair for the utility to spend millions on outside contractors while resisting the union’s own wage demands.
AAA has not announced a strike date. The union’s clarification that ratifying a strike vote does not mean an immediate walkout still stands, and further talks between the utility and the UIA are expected.
Related coverage: AAA Workers Authorize Strike Vote Amid Water Crisis · Union Clarifies AAA Strike Vote Isn’t an Immediate Walkout
Sources: San Juan Daily Star, NotiCel, Primera Hora, Telemundo Puerto Rico, Oficina del Contralor de Puerto Rico
