Don’t blame lack of drivers for the delays in aid to Puerto Rico’s residents, says union, blame the bureaucratic red tape.
Over the last week, following Hurricane Maria’s devastating impact on the island of Puerto Rico, the news media has focused on the slowness of aid being distributed to the island’s residents.
While, on Friday and Saturday, San Juan’s mayor and U.S. President Donald Trump got into a war of words over the issue, the problem, it seems, is not that aid has not arrived in Puerto Rico—there will have been 4,000 containers delivered by Friday, according to NPR—the problem has reportedly been the lack of drivers available to deliver the aid.
“These containers are full of food, these containers are full of water, full of medicine … full of construction materials,” says [shipping container company Crowley] Vice President Jose Ayala, who notes a barge a day has arrived since the port opened on Saturday. “It has reached Puerto Rico. The problem is we can’t get it on the shelves.”
However, the bottleneck may not, in fact, be due to a lack of drivers, according to the Union de Tronquistas de Puerto Rico local 901 (an affiliate of the Teamsters), but due to the paperwork required to get the containers cleared from the docks.
On Wednesday, as news reports began blaming the lack of drivers on the island for the aid delays, the union stated on its Facebook page that this was not the case.
Rather, the union said, the problem is with the container owners and the paperwork.
From Facebook’s translation:
The Truckers are on the street working from the day after the hurricane has passed and we will continue to work to bring peace and tranquillity to the people.
It should be clarified that containers that have arrived at the docks are consigned to a person or entity or company who is responsible or owner of the goods.
That owner has to claim or pull up the container so that the trucker can go to dock to get him out.
Until the container is not up (Cliriado in our colloquial) the truck driver can’t get it out.
When the news says that the containers are on the dock and they have not been removed, it means that they have not been cleared up by the owner or owner of the goods.
The Truckers are ready and willing to take out the containers when they’re gone!
Puerto Rico angry at US hurricane aid effort https://t.co/B0nVgXBC6E pic.twitter.com/OuQoSKVVOM
— euronews (@euronews) September 30, 2017
Frmr. FEMA director: Getting to remote areas will be difficult from CNBC.
FALN is running the show in PR. A violent Communist front organization
The Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional (English: Armed Forces of National Liberation
The group was a 1970s Marxist–Leninist militant group which fought to transform Puerto Rico into a communist state. They are threatening aid workers with violence. Here is one quote from a USAF family
“My Son is there with the USAF and is telling me they are getting threats if they try and move supplies themselves from people calling themselves FALN
They have infiltrated all levels of govt and hate the USA! They also hate the thought of PR ‘s association with the USA. The people be damned. So very typical of Utopian Communists. Let all the monkeys starve to death or kill each other.
Here is an accurate account from a police officer on scene in PR. The governor and some mayors refuse to release aid unless there is a camera following them and they receive the credit as any good Communist would demand. Being rescued by a capitalist society is a big NO NO! to hard core communists
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=376&v=5Uc1pPsKt_s
My profound prayers for the people of PR. Not only is the disaster trying to kill them, so is the FALN communists.
God help them.
If this is indeed true, then trump is not addressing the problem, is he?
Or, it could be a local issue in which the Feds have not gotten a handle on yet.
I am sure that Trump is more concerned with his golf trophy than in finding some way to cut that red tape.