New 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. This summer, we will publish the findings of this research and report, as promised to the Puerto Rican workers who contributed their time, experiences and ideas to this effort.
Front cover: Collage of images, López-Wagner Strategies and Adobe Stock images, assembled by the Artsy Rooster Studio
Our team’s work on this project began in the Spring of 2024, when the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA) 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.
Founded in 1972, with a local LCLAA Puerto Rico chapter based on the unincorporated island territory of 3.2 million people, the union’s local representatives have been active in day-to-day actions in support of workers, including supporting hurricane and earthquake recovery efforts, providing training services, and advancing advocacy locally since 1998. Yet, a necessity for 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.
In consultation with LCLAA and its Puerto Rico-based union partners and affiliates, we set out to conduct research, survey, and listen to communities on the island and within the diaspora. This was done to provide key recommendations for how LCLAA and the AFL-CIO, a federation of 63 national and international labor unions, can support and advocate alongside Puerto Rican workers and communities in the ways the people on the island feel are welcome and necessary. LCLAA, a constituency group of AFL-CIO, based in Washington, D.C., commissioned this report and preliminary study.
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.
This project recently culminated with the report La Voz de los Trabajadores: Listening to Puerto Rican Workers for Labor Rights and Justice, inclusive of recommendations for LCLAA, authored by Betsy López-Wagner, Jo Vicente, Raul Audelo, and Will López-Wagner. These were finalized, reviewed and submitted forward to LCLAA and the organization’s affiliates in May 2025.
Report design by Artsy Rooster Studio, a creative parther of López-Wagner Strategies.
La Voz de los Trabajadores: Listening to Puerto Rican Workers for Labor Rights and Justice © 2025, López-Wagner Strategies, An Equitable Communications Agency® All rights reserved.
Any reproduction of the report or its images in English or Spanish requires the expressed review and approval of López-Wagner Strategies and Artsy Rooster Studio.
