Two days after water utility workers authorized a strike, the government says it isn’t panicking — but it isn’t looking away either. La Fortaleza says it’s staying in close contact with the union, AAA has put a specific number on the table, and the union’s own president is cautioning that nobody should expect a walkout tomorrow.
Public affairs secretary Jean Peña Payano told reporters Sunday, in a briefing at La Fortaleza’s Palacio Rojo first reported by El Nuevo Día, that the administration will keep talking with Unión Independiente Auténtica leadership and keep tabs on where things stand at the water utility. His message, in short: getting water to people matters more than who wins the standoff.
More than 600 UIA members voted Saturday at an assembly in Arecibo to reject AAA’s latest salary offer and authorize a strike. But UIA president José Cajigas Romero was careful to clarify what that vote actually does. It doesn’t trigger an immediate walkout — it hands his executive committee the authority to call another assembly, on a date not yet set, to work out the terms of any actual strike.
The AAA Salary Offer Behind the Rejection
The AAA salary offer that the union turned down would raise base pay from $10.50 to $11.74 an hour. UIA is asking for $12.50, phased in with increases further up the pay scale. AAA’s administration vice president, Karim Del Valle, said in a statement that the utility is trying to land on something it can actually sustain financially, and warned that dragging out the process could end up delaying the raises and back pay workers are counting on.
A Second Water Problem, Unrelated to the Strike
The timing is awkward for another reason. A broken pump at the La Plata reservoir — which serves parts of San Juan, Guaynabo, Bayamón and several other municipalities, separate from the Carraízo system — has left roughly 24,000 customers without service or on low pressure since last week. AAA says it’s still sourcing specialized replacement parts from off the island, with no repair timeline yet.
A Dispute That Goes Beyond the Paycheck
Cajigas has pointed to more than a salary gap. The union says a classification and pay-scale review has sat unresolved for close to two years, that AAA has been subcontracting work that should go to union employees, and that chronic understaffing has piled pressure on the workers who keep the system running. UIA held a 24-hour picket outside La Fortaleza last week after Gov. Jenniffer González sent a message urging members not to protest — a message the union said unfairly put the risk of any service disruption on workers’ shoulders, at a moment when much of San Juan is already living with rationing tied to the Carraízo reservoir.
Asked Sunday how those talks were progressing, Peña Payano said he didn’t have an update.
Related coverage: AAA Workers Authorize Strike Vote Amid Water Crisis
Sources: El Nuevo Día
