UPR Workers' Strike Enters Third Week: Campus-Access Deal Reached, but Health Plan Fight Still Stuck in Court

The University of Puerto Rico Workers' Union (known as STUPR) and the university's central administration reached an agreement on Tuesday, September 15, over access to campuses, after two weeks of a strike that left several campuses across the country's largest public university system without full janitorial service and trash collection ¹. The San Juan Court of First Instance dismissed a contempt motion the UPR had filed against the union, after the union committed to guaranteeing free vehicular and pedestrian traffic on campuses ¹³. But the core of the conflict, whether non-teaching employees have the right to choose their own health plan, remains unresolved: Judge Katarina Stipec Rubio reserved her ruling after a hearing that ran an entire day on Friday, September 11 ².

The strike began on September 1, after the administration of President Zayira Jordán Conde insisted on folding employees represented by the union into the institutional health plan, instead of recognizing the independent plan those workers have administered for years without paying a premium ¹². Union president David Muñoz described the walkout as a direct consequence of that decision: "This strike was provoked by them, so it is only the administration that will decide how long this lasts" ². After a brief pause over the weekend of September 6 and 7, meant to give the UPR room to comply with what the courts had ordered, Muñoz announced the strike would continue indefinitely, with "most units inoperative" across at least 10 of the system's 11 campuses ².

The legal backstory is key to understanding why this is not a simple wage dispute. In 2021, the Puerto Rico Department of Labor's Arbitration and Conciliation Board issued an award finding that the UPR cannot unilaterally alter the collectively bargained provisions covering the health plan of workers represented by the union ²³. That award was upheld, according to the union, by the Court of First Instance, the Court of Appeals, and the Puerto Rico Supreme Court ³. The union selected Triple S from among seven proposals submitted through a request-for-proposals process, and even a 2024 letter from former university president Luis Ferrao, addressed to then-board chair Ricardo Dalmau Santana, backed that process: the UPR's own legal office concluded at the time that the union "does in fact have the right to choose its health plan" through that mechanism ³. The current administration, however, argues this is a matter of public funds and demands its own evaluation, citing findings from an internal audit identified as OAI-2025-10 that, according to the UPR, flagged compliance gaps in the process ³⁴.

The numbers behind the dispute are concrete. According to Muñoz, the Triple S plan the union administers costs the university about $105 less per employee per month than the institutional plan, adding up to roughly $1 million in annual savings for the UPR ². The strike's operational impact has also been tangible: the Medical Sciences Campus had to cancel hundreds of clinic appointments for lack of sufficient cleaning staff, while trash collection and bathroom maintenance stopped on several campuses, even as classes continued normally ².

What This Means for You

If you are a UPR student, patient, or employee, this is not a distant union squabble. The appointment cancellations at the Medical Sciences Campus have already affected hundreds of patients who depend on that health network, many of them low-income. If you have relatives or neighbors who work in maintenance or custodial roles at the UPR under this contract, their health coverage remains in limbo until Judge Stipec Rubio issues her ruling. And if you are a public employee at any agency with a collective bargaining agreement, this case is a precedent other unions are watching closely: it defines how far a union's right to administer its own health plan extends against an administration that claims control over public funds.

How to Handle It / Checklist

1. If you have a medical appointment at the Medical Sciences Campus, call to confirm it before leaving home; cancellations have been intermittent since September 1.
2. If you are a non-teaching employee covered by the union's contract, ask your supervisor or Human Resources for written confirmation of your current health coverage while the litigation continues.
3. Check the case status at the San Juan Court of First Instance through the Judicial Branch's SUMAC case management system.
4. If you plan to visit any campus, confirm in advance whether there is picket activity at the gates so you can plan your entry and exit without trouble.
5. Follow the official UPR and STUPR union pages for announcements about Judge Stipec Rubio's ruling, which remains pending.

What's Next

The September 15 access agreement resolves only part of the dispute, the part related to gate blockages. The underlying issue, the union's right to keep its own health plan, remains with Judge Stipec Rubio, who gave no timeline for her decision after the September 11 hearing ². Meanwhile, a separate proceeding before Judge Anthony Cuevas Ramos, over the UPR's own contempt motion against the union, was rendered moot by the access agreement, but both sides will still need to keep negotiating the operational terms of demonstrations on campus ¹³. If the judge rules in the union's favor, the UPR would have to restore the premium-free Triple S plan for those employees, an outcome the union says would also save the university money. If she rules for the administration, the dispute could escalate into another strike, something that has already happened once this month.

Sources

1. El Nuevo Día - UPR y Sindicato de Trabajadores llegan a acuerdo sobre el acceso a los recintos en medio de huelga
2. El Nuevo Día - Jueza se reserva fallo en conflicto entre el Sindicato de Trabajadores y la UPR por plan médico
3. NotiCel - UPR no consigue desacato contra Sindicato de Trabajadores
4. El Nuevo Día - Sindicato de Trabajadores de la UPR espera hallar solución a la huelga en el tribunal