P.R. Laws tit. 29, § 62
The public policy of the Government of Puerto Rico as to employment relations and collective bargaining is declared to be as follows:
(1) It is a fundamental necessity of the people of Puerto Rico to develop its production to the maximum in order to establish the highest possible living standards for the ever-growing population; it is the obligation of the Government of Puerto Rico to adopt such measures as may be conducive to the maximum development of this production and remove the threat that a day might come when, with the continuous increase in the population and the impossibility of maintaining an equivalent increase in production, the people must confront, a hopeless catastrophe; and it is the aim of the Government to develop and maintain such production through the comprehension and education of all the elements composing the people as regards the fundamental necessity of raising production to the limit and of distributing this production as equitably as may be possible; and it is likewise the purpose of the Government to develop in practice the principle of collective bargaining, in such a manner that the basic problem of the necessity for maximum production can be solved.
(2) Industrial peace, adequate and regular salaries for the employees, and uninterrupted production of goods and services by means of collective bargaining, are essential factors for the economic development of Puerto Rico. The achievement of these objectives depends to a large extent upon fair, friendly and mutually satisfactory relations between employers and employees, and upon the availability of adequate means for the peaceful solution of employer-employee controversies.
(3) By means of collective bargaining, terms and conditions of employment are to be established. For the purposes of such bargaining employers and employees shall have the right of forming organizations of their own choosing.
(4) It is the policy of the Government to eliminate the causes of certain labor disputes, by developing the practices and proceedings of collective bargaining and by establishing an adequate, efficient, and impartial tribunal which will carry out this policy.
(5) All existing collective bargaining contracts, as well as those hereafter executed, are hereby declared to be instruments for the promotion of the public policy of the Government of Puerto Rico in its efforts to develop production to the maximum; and it is declared that as such they are vested with a public interest. The exercise of the rights and the performance of the obligations by the parties to such collective bargaining contracts are therefore subject to such reasonable regulations as may be necessary to effectuate the public policies of this subchapter.
History —May 8, 1945, No. 130, p. 406, § 1; Mar. 7, 1946, No. 6, p. 18, § 1.