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FROM
CUBA
Merchant marine crew frustrated with downsizing
of fleet in Cuba
HAVANA, January 29 (www.cubanet.org) -
More than 100 merchant marine crewmen were
brought together January 23 by the contracting
agency Agemarca to notify them of downsizing
decisions in the fleet that will idle more
than 2,500.
A veteran with more than 35 years of service
said he had always fulfilled the duties
the Revolution had requested of him, and
that he had gone into the merchant marine
when the Revolution asked him to do so in
order to reinforce the service ideologically,
and that now he was being asked to leave.
He pointed out most of the people in the
room were former Interior Ministry, Armed
Forces or even Rebel Army, Castro's revolutionary
fighters, and finished asking that "a
little justice be done."
Another crewman said it was now possible
that they would be required to speak English
as a condition for keeping their jobs, whereas
previously speaking English had been forbidden
aboard, and Russian was a requirement. He
remembered that at one time, just having
a book or magazine in English was considered
"ideologic diversionism," singling
out another crewman in the room as someone
who had been reprimanded for having in his
possession a book written in English.
A third crewman argued that it wasn't their
fault there were no ships, since the Cuban
fleet had once been the largest in the Caribbean.
"We weren't the ones who sold the ships,"
he said.
At another similar meeting a few days before,
a stewardess asked why some workers were
being told to take early retirement when
Castro, who is now 77, is still leading
the country.
Another meeting is scheduled for January
31, to tell pursers that their job classification
is being eliminated due to "technological
developments and the search for efficiency."
Versión
original en español
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