AFGE representatives from the Social Security Administration joined members of Congress last week in urging the agency to provide residents in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands with full access to SSA’s toll-free help line.
Residents in both territories lost the first hour of phone service for Social Security’s national 1-800 number on Nov. 2 after most of the U.S. rolled back their clocks by one hour due to Daylight Savings Time.
Neither territory recognizes daylight savings time, so they remain on standard time throughout the year. Yet SSA is pushing back the opening hours for its phone lines by one hour to reflect the time change – meaning residents in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands will lose that first hour of contact.
“It’s not just any hour. Social Security tells people that mornings have the shortest wait times, and so for a working parent who calls before heading to work, that is the hour that matters the most,” said Puerto Rico Resident Commissioner Pablo José Hernández Rivera, who represents the territory as a non-voting member of the U.S. House.
There are close to 852,000 Social Security beneficiaries in Puerto Rico and more than 2,200 in the Virgin Islands who will be directly affected by the loss of access to the phone line, Hernández said.
“The people of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands should not have to wait longer for a federal service that they paid for just because our islands don’t change our clocks,” he said during an Oct. 29 press call hosted by AFGE Council 220 and Local 2608.
Island residents are a bit older than those on the mainland, so the impact of any change to SSA’s services affects them disproportionately, said Rep. Darren Soto (D-Fla.).
“I’m just here to stand with AFGE and our brothers and sisters on the island to express my absolute support for getting this hour back that gets taken away because of a callous administrative change,” Soto said.
The change also pushes back the shifts of workers at SSA’s San Juan teleservice center by 45 minutes, negatively impacting childcare, elderly care, and family dynamics. Flexible schedules used to absorb the time change, but SSA eliminated that benefit in June 2025.
“There’s a shortage of childcare on the island, so a lot of kids are just going to be waiting at school for their parents to pick them up, and that’s unacceptable,” said Jessica LaPointe, president of AFGE Council 220, which is the exclusive representative of about 25,000 bargaining unit employees at SSA who work in field offices, teleservice centers, workload support units, and other components in every state and U.S. territory.
Doris Pagán Martínez, a union representative at the San Juan teleservice center, read a statement from Local 2608 President Abrahan Santiago. The local, which represents SSA employees in both territories, is pursuing the appropriate bargaining process and has requested information from management, he said.
“Why should Puerto Rico’s federal employees bear the burden of a time change that does not exist on the island?” Santiago’s statement said. “Puerto Rico may not change its clocks, but that does not mean the rights of Puerto Rico’s federal employees should be overlooked.”
Council 220 and Local 2608 are calling on SSA to restore 8 a.m. Atlantic Standard Time (AST) phone service for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands and to reinstate flexible schedules for SSA’s employees.
Written by OPEIU 2 AFL-CIO
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