Viva La Revolution, right lefties?
Each Cuban worker got two pairs of overalls, a set of sturdy boots, a helmet and food commensurate with how hard he worked.
Their labor fixing up American cruise ships at a Curacao dry dock was valued at $6.90 an hour. But the 108 Cuban shipyard hands who worked double shifts in a joint venture between the Cuban government and the Curacao Dry Dock Company did not get to spend their wages. Their earnings were applied to the Cuban government’s debt with the company, court records show.
Documents reviewed Wednesday by The Miami Herald in an ongoing 2006 lawsuit filed in Miami by the workers offer a rare glimpse at employment terms normally kept secret between the Cuban government and the firms with which it does business. The documents appear to offer proof that the government’s joint ventures abroad sometimes involve unpaid labor.
Instead of a salary, the men got money for food and 400 Cuban pesos a month — about $18 at the current exchange rate.
Three former dry-dock workers eventually escaped what their attorneys call a ”forced labor camp” in Willemstad, Curacao, and filed the suit in U.S. District Court in Miami, alleging the Cuban government offered them up as slave labor to pay off its debts.
Alberto Justo RodrÃÂguez, Fernando Alonso Hernández and Luis Alberto Casanova Toledo — who now live in the Tampa Bay area — sued the Curacao Dry Dock Company, saying it forced them to work against their will while Cuban agents kept an eye on their every move.
Their boss at the docks: Fidel Castro’s nephew.
I’m sure Michael Moore and Code Pink will be releasing statements lambasting the oppression of these poor workers very soon. But as evidenced by this video I found linked to by the excellent site The Real Cuba, forced labor has been a part of Castro’s regime since the beginning:
[youtube]LdjsWTtLevc[/youtube]
Rob Taylor,
What do you expect? In practice slave labor has always been a part of communism! The only communist societies without slave labor exists only in a fantasy world.
I just wish some of these kids being indoctrinated by America’s left would be told the truth about communists.
Rob Taylor,
Just point out to them that large numbers of people have been risking their lives to escape Cuba for the past forty years and that it only started happening after Castro gained power. Then Ask them how they can squire that with the idea that Cuba is a utopia. If communism in Cuba has created such a wonderful society, why would people risk their lives to escape it? Not to mention that if communist ideology was correct, why would people risk their lives to come to America of all places, the ultimate capitalist society on Earth today? Even if you didn’t know all the other horrible things about Cuba, this alone could make you doubt that it is a utopia of any kind.
If only logic could penetrate the thick skulls of the average lefty. Someone once told me people were fleeing Cuba because the American “blockade” made it hard to get food. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Rob Taylor,
Its really nothing but a bunch of wishful thinking. The guy probably a spoiled brat who thought the world sucked and his life sucked and he just wanted things to be better. He was probably to in love with the fantasy of communism to see the reality of communism. Its easy to see capitalism as evil when you have never lived under anything else.