Puerto Rican have had to put up with a lot in recent years, and that is finally spilling over into labor unrest.
On March 19, teachers in Puerto Rico did a one-day strike against dramatic austerity measures, including closing 300 schools and completely privatizing the rest.
But almost no one noticed.
So on May Day, the unions called a general strike, and it was successful for getting a big turnout.

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Video sent to me by security guard Daniel Peña shows the moment police used tear gas on protesters in Puerto Rico. Riot police were holding the line when a small group of protesters advanced on them; cops pushed back, objects were thrown at police who then deployed gas pic.twitter.com/DaEN1YpjMx

— David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) May 2, 2018

On Tuesday, thousands of people poured into the streets of San Juan, protesting both sweeping new cutbacks to the island’s spending and a painfully slow hurricane recovery. In a clash with riot police, protesters were met with tear gas and pepper spray. Though the demonstrations were ultimately disbanded, they could signal a deeper reckoning about the future of Puerto Rico and the limits of the ongoing austerity program....
And then there was “La Junta,” a financial oversight and management board created by Congress in 2016 to solve Puerto Rico’s debt crisis and with whom residents and local government alike are currently at odds.

It was the oversight board’s new fiscal plan for Puerto Rico that set the stage for the violent clashes. In mid-April, the board approved the regime, which is supposed to help the island get out from under billions of dollars in debt; satisfy municipal creditors; stabilize the power infrastructure; and handle the ongoing recovery from Hurricane Maria, which made landfall last September.

That plan contains a number of provisions that have proven highly controversial among Puerto Ricans. On the labor side, the board’s plan takes steps to reduce employer costs; decrease work in “informal” markets, like street vending; and push workers into formal work arrangements—namely, tourism. It would immediately slash territory-mandated employee benefits, including sick leave and vacation pay; and it would cancel the mandatory Christmas bonus that firms currently have to pay most employees

19 people were arrested. Hundreds were injured.
The ACLU had observers at the scene.

“The government’s motive, more that guaranteeing the right of the protesters to express without worry and maintaining a safe environment, was to suppress the expression,” said Josué González Ortiz, an ACLU staff attorney, in a press conference. “The government made itself enemy of the [freedom of] expression, and its mobilization was exaggerated.”

“Since the beginning, they blocked the public streets, that are the scene of protected expression, precisely to hinder expression, and that causes tension among the protesters,” he added.

A federal judge has ordered an investigation of the police riot.