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HAVANA, March 10 (Reinaldo Cosano Alén / www.cubanet.org) -
Lifeguards who patrol the 15-mile stretch of beaches east of Havana complain of
working conditions they say renders them ineffective.
"We don't have appropriate means to make our work more effective. We
don't have adequate swimming suits, or even shirts to replace the one given us
more than a year ago, the one that reads "Lifeguard Cuba Red Cross."
The government is the only one that has them and won't sell them in stores. We
don't have swimming fins or snorkels, or whistles," said Daniel Sabatier
Ruiz, of Guanabo beach, where the national lifeguard academy has operated for
decades.
Sabatier also complained of inadequate observation towers and of a lack of
warm clothing for the winter months.
"We don't have a comfortable tower to rest. The refrigerator has been
out of order for a long time. We have no security for our personal effects, no
cellular phone to call for help, not even a regular phone," said another
lifeguard who didn't want to be identified.
The rescue craft is also useless, lifeguards said. "We can't use it
because it has a dead battery, and we need it to rescue swimmers in danger of
drowning far from the shore. We keep bringing this up at the workers'
assemblies, and we are always told there are no resources."
Brigade chief Miguel Cobo has proposed to the authorities that lifeguards be
allowed to retire at age 55, instead of at 60, due to the physical requirements
of the job, but to no avail.
Average salary for a lifeguard is 276 pesos, or the equivalent of 10.50 U.
S. dollars.
Lifeguards say their colleagues in fashionable Varadero beach have it
better. "In Varadero, which is barred to Cubans, lifeguards have good
plastic towers," said Sabatier, adding that there are stretches of beach
elsewhere go unpatrolled because lifeguards quit their jobs and sometimes the
country.
Versión original
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