The Education Department is contracting private cleaning companies owned by people with close ties to the New Progressive Party, among other alleged irregularities involving the pending layoff of 3,660 public school janitors in January, the Puerto Rican Workers Syndicate denounced, claims to which the agency did not respond Wednesday.
The supposed irregularities are causing problems with public school maintenance that is needed to prevent the spread of the H1N1 virus among local public school students, the union said. As of Wednesday, 43 people have
died in Puerto Rico from the new influenza strain circling the globe, the Health Department reported.
 “This signifies the return of political favoritism when the party committees of the political party in power would dole out public jobs to its followers and it is a foretaste of what is awaiting us when the janitors are laid off,” said Israel Morales, vice president of the Puerto Rican Workers Syndicate, or SPT by its Spanish initials.
The SPT has identified at least five companies that are either owned by NPP leaders or already have contracts with NPP municipalities, Morales said.
Among the companies with close NPP ties is National Building Maintenance, owned by former NPP candidate to the mayoralty of Ponce Hercios Bermúdez, Morales said.
The company, which has contracts to clean schools in Ponce, Mayagüez and Maricao, has asked janitors to take off work for the rest of the year to use up their accumulated vacation days and work for National Building Maintenance from 3 pm to 10 pm. People requesting work must hand in job applications to Ferdinand Pérez, NPP member of Ponce’s municipal assembly, Morales said.
KJ Service Group is another cleaning contractor with alleged close NPP contacts. The company is offering work to NPP supporters and Nelson Cruz, 2008 NPP candidate for Peñuelas mayor, and Janice González
Galarza, 2008 NPP candidate for Guayanilla mayor, are the ones recruiting for workers for the company, Morales said. The company’s links to the NPP also are demonstrated by the fact workers in Guayanilla received their uniforms at the NPP’s party committee in that town.
Edna Blassini, former organizer for Gov. Fortuño’s campaign in western Puerto Rico and former NPP candidate for Mayagüez mayor, working as a spokeswoman and recruiter for JR Service Maintenance, which also holds Education Department contracts. She held a recruitment meeting in Mayagüez to which only Education Department workers who are NPP members were invited, Morales said.
The SPT also questioned the contracting of Perfect Cleaning Services – Perfect Services, which currently has contracts with the municipalities of San Juan, Guaynabo and Bayamón, and Xperts, owned by Alberto González Jr., who has contracts to clean public schools in Bayamón. Regarding Xperts, Morales said there have been situations where school principals offer union members to take all their vacation days until the end of the year “because the new company already arrived.” However, the contract does not appear on the Comptroller’s Web page, he said.
Other irregularities involving 3,660 the public school janitors to be laid off are reports they are being instructed to take their sick days as the agency will not reimburse workers with less than 10 years on the job for their accumulated sick days and so that private cleaning companies with NPP ties can begin their contracts with the agency, Morales said. The companies in turn are recruiting NPP supporters, he said.
Initially, the janitors were slated to be laid off in November, but a court ruling determined the Fiscal Reconstruction and Stabilization Board failed to properly notify workers of their layoffs, which it is now correcting.
Sandra Correa, SPT vice president, also denounced allegations that the agency is attempting to transfer janitors pending firing to schools in remote regions in the island, which the private cleaning companies do not want to serve.
“We exhort school janitors not to permit their transfer under these conditions and for the rest of the school community to support these workers who are part of the life and routine at schools,” Correa said.
The SPT warned that janitors re-hired by private cleaning companies will have fewer benefits and worse working conditions because companies aim will be to maximize profits, and called for public school workers to continue to fight the planned dismissal of some 20,000 public employees in January.
Teacher problems
Emilio Nieves Torres, president the National Union of Teachers and Education Workers, Unete by its Spanish acronym, also said he is worried Education Secretary Carlos Chardón plans to issue a new circular letter that would enable increase the number of students, including students from different grades, in one teacher’s classroom.
“We have been speaking with teachers, preparing ourselves for when they implement this because we are going to resist it since we need to force Education to make these decision based on pedagogical reasons not economic ones,” Nieves said.
A few weeks ago, Chardón issued a circular letter setting the stage for the creation of groups containing more than one grade.