Research: Listening to Puerto Rican Workers for Labor Rights and Justice

The López-Wagner Strategies team conducted a preliminary analysis of the labor rights and justice issues in Puerto Rico – issues faced by union and non-union workers, as well as their communities. The work, which began in the Spring of 2024, recently culminated with the delivery of these findings in May 2025.

Our team’s work on this project began in the Spring of 2024, when a client partner sought to better understand the distinct priorities, needs, and desires of Puerto Rican workers and families on the island – with a hyperfocused interest in the aspirations and challenges of union and nonunion workers on the unincorporated island territory of 3.2 million people. In consultation with our client partner and its Puerto Rico-based partners and affiliates, we set out to conduct research, a public survey titled La Voz de los Trabajadores, and listen to communities on the island and within the diaspora.

The main assessment period for the survey and on-site events opened on June 29, 2024 and ended September 12, 2024, inclusive of a survey extension period due to Hurricane Ernesto. We homed in on a set of core intersectional issues – where labor rights and justice meet environment, energy, education, and economy to bring those areas of concern forward and to better understand how workers on the island are faring. Additional study and analysis on trade union organizing on the island and within the diaspora is necessary to better understand and map all active unions and their respective members on the island. Further community advocacy and engagement remains as it relates to ensuring more resources in support of worker rights and justice – as workers seek additional support, higher wages, and relief from policies and practices that are affecting their livelihoods. These issues have only compounded during more socially and economically-challenging times.

This project recently culminated with delivery of the report, inclusive of recommendations for our client partner, authored by Betsy López-Wagner, Jo Vicente, Raul Audelo, and Will López-Wagner. These were finalized, reviewed and submitted forward to the organization in May 2025, along with a report designed by Artsy Rooster Studio, a creative parther of López-Wagner Strategies.