title: Labor Unit of Nurses and Health Employees
text: # Labor Unit of Nurses and Health Employees
  
  The Labor Unit of Nurses and Health Employees (Spanish: Unidad Laboral de Enfermeras(os), y Empleados de la Salud, ULEES) is a trade union of nurses and healthcare workers in Puerto Rico.
  
  ## History
  
  ULEES was founded in 1974. For a long time, the union was led by Radamés Quiñones Aponte.
  
  In 2010, ULEES led a picket line outside a hospital in Ponce, calling for a new collective bargaining agreement.
  
  In 2020, ULEES called on the Puerto Rican government to investigate allegations that healthcare workers were prioritising friends and administration staff for COVID-19 vaccination. In the next year, the union alleged that some hospitals made healthcare workers come in for work even while they were sick with Covid.
  
  