HAVANA, January 21 (Luis Viño Zimerman) – Three Havana bus
drivers who hadn’t worked or been paid for two months because their buses
were not in service were asked to work for one day without pay and were fired
when they refused.
The three, José Méndez Cabezas, 46, Juan Fallat Astorga, 58,
and José Pérez Pérez, 55, were asked by the administrator
and the Communist party secretary at the bus terminal to contribute a day’s
work last week to transport people to a government rally in outlying Arroyo
Naranjo.
Méndez, Fallat and Pérez hadn’t worked for two months
because their regular buses had broken down and the spare parts to put them back
in service are not available. The government-owned bus company does not
guarantee its employees work or a salary, so they hadn’t been paid in the
two months.
"To transport people to the Open Tribunes or to the Marches of the
Combative People there are always buses. There are even "reserve"
spare parts for thebuses, but when the events are over, the parts are taken away
and the buses remain out of service," said one bus worker who didn’t
want to give his name.
"In the two months we have been out, neither the administration nor the
Communist party worried about us," said one of the fired drivers.
Another said, "Now the administration of the compay wanted us to drive,
and they even managed to produce enough buses to transport people to the
political event. That’s why we told them to find someone else."
In their separation papers, officials wrote "Refusal of service to the
government and the Party."
Versión original
en español
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