Workers at Platt Metal, a private company in Puerto Rico, voted earlier this year to join the UAW.

Some 450 employees of Puerto Rico’s Environmental Quality Board (Junta de Calidad Ambiental) have voted for UAW representation--joining 10,000 school cafeteria workers who joined the union last November.

A growing number of Puerto Rico’s public workers are turning to the UAW for representation under Law 45, which gives public workers collective bargaining rights. Workers in Puerto Rico’s Agriculture, Treasury, Fire, and Family departments will all hold union votes this year.

Public workers have to vote two times to achieve collective bargaining representation--first to determine if they want a union and second for a specific union. School cafeteria and environmental quality employees have held both votes; workers in the Family Dept. have won their first vote and have their second scheduled. School cafeteria workers were voting on their first UAW contract as Solidarity went to press.

Workers at Platt Metal Co., a private company in Puerto Rico, also voted to join the UAW earlier this year.

The UAW represents over 13,000 Puerto Rican workers.