The Unión Independiente Auténtica (UIA) approved a proposed salary increase for its members, who are employees of the Autoridad de Acueductos y Alcantarillados (AAA), to $12 per hour in the first scale and $12.25 in the second. José Cajigas Romero, UIA president, explained that although the goal was to raise the base salary to $12.50, the union agreed to the proposed amount through a vote.
The increase will now be considered by the AAA's Junta de Gobierno, which will convene an extraordinary meeting to evaluate and approve it. The UIA had previously declared a strike vote on August 18 after failing to reach an agreement with the AAA administration for a $12.50 base salary increase. The AAA had initially proposed a salary increase from $10.50 to $10.90, which was rejected by the UIA.
In a second round of negotiations, the AAA increased its proposal to $11.74, which was also rejected by the union. The AAA's management has acknowledged that the corporation faces recruitment problems due to low salaries, but had argued that their proposed increases were in line with industry standards in the United States.