Puerto Rican Teamsters Stories are Bogus
A strike, as was widely circulated online delayed distribution of help in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.
There was, in actuality, no attack.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters issued an announcement on Oct. 2 denouncing the promise.
“Allow me to be clear – Teamsters in Puerto Rico have been working on the relief efforts as day one,” Alexis Rodriguez, the secretary-treasurer of the Teamsters in Puerto Rico, said in the announcement. “Anyone who has reported anything else is lying. Our only agenda is to help make Puerto Rico better and stronger.”
Half a dozen tales became popular on Facebook — and so were flagged as questionable by our subscribers and Facebook users — who claimed the water, food, and medication had piled up in the vents rather than becoming to victims of this storm because members of their marriage had not been showing up to work.
The tales were mostly according to a HuffPost post that had lent Col. Michael Valle, who’s managing relief efforts on the island to the U.S. Air Force. The tales that are bogus misrepresent by utilizing just quotations, what he said.
As stated that lots of equipment — such as generators were delivered to Puerto Rico and they correctly cite his quotation that states the stories paraphrase Valle:
“it is a shortage of drivers to the transportation trucks, the 18 wheelers. We have. We have. You will find boats filled with equipment waiting to have a car. Nevertheless, only 20 percent of those truck drivers appear to do the job ”
What the stories do not include, however, is exactly what Valle said immediately then, and that’s: “There ought to be no blame on the motorists. They can not get to function, the infrastructure has been ruined, they can not get fuel themselves and they can not call us since there’s no communication. The will of the people of Puerto Rico will be off the charts. The truck drivers have families a number have no water or food. They must look after their household’s needs until they return to work, and as soon as they do move, they can not call home”
That opinion — that the state of the streets and shortage of gas has triggered the relief effort — has been backed up by announcements from Brock Long, the secretary of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“You do not only bring the products in, but you also need to have the ability to pump down them the roadway systems that we’ve been working urgently to find open,” he stated on Fox News on Oct. 1.
“We have opened up 11 key highways, yet this morning you will find over 3,200 distinct issues reported together with the roadway systems — from bridges overlooking, to streets being blocked by floodwaters, to streets just disappeared due to landslides,” he explained.
Long highlighted later that afternoon on ABC News that neighborhood service efforts in Puerto Rico have been slowed by the sheer size of the crisis. “They have a tough strike,” he said, describing that the island had been hit by none, but two hurricanes in less than a couple of weeks.
Hurricane Irma tore through Puerto Rico on Sept. 6, and then Hurricane Maria followed on Sept. 20.
“Lots of the infrastructure was ruined by Irma,” Long stated on Fox News,” then Maria comes and ends off it entirely.”
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As well as misrepresenting the HuffPost post, a number of these news stories mention a clip by a Puerto Rican newscast which contains a meeting with Victor Rodriguez, who’s in control of a truckers’ union that, based on incorporation documents registered with the Department of State at Puerto Rico, seems to be separate in the Teamsters.
A site known as the Conservative Treehouse comprised the clip in its narrative with a caption that states in English: “Puerto Rican union leader will not let drivers move to work”
However, the clip first caption really says: “Victor Rodriguez of the Broad Front of Truck Drivers blames the governor that there isn’t any gas at the channels.” We used Google Translate to find the English edition of the caption that was Spanish.
In the days following Maria struck, there have been major gas shortages throughout the island. As of Oct. 10, 860 of this island’s 1,100 gas stations were available, as reported by a site maintained from the Puerto Rican authorities.
At no time in the movie does Rodriguez state there’s a strike.
And, based on Lauren Hartnett, a spokeswoman for Oxfam America, an assistance agency that’s been engaging employees on the floor, in Puerto Rico in Hurricane Maria aid confirm that there’s not any truck drivers’ strike. Instead, a lack of leadership and infrastructure has stymied relief efforts from the very best.
Facts Check: True
