The Independent Telephone Workers Union, a 2,000 employee bargaining unit employed by Claro Puerto Rico known as the UIET, has voted to affiliate itself with the Office and Professional Employees International Union. The new group will be known as OPEIU Local Union 1971.
Some $180 million that Puerto Rico receives in funding assigned annually through the Federal Communications Commission could be at risk due to the methodologies the agency is implementing to phase out the Universal Service Program and usher in its replacement, the Connect America Fund.
As it does every quarter, the Federal Communications Commission is reviewing the rates that telephone companies must charge and pass off to consumers to cover the Universal Service Fund, which among other things, subsidizes services offered to low-income consumers as well as improvements to schools and libraries.
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