Cuba: Work till you drop dead or else!

HAVANA, May 5 (Víctor Manuel Domínguez, Lux Info Press / www.cubanet.org) - Lidia Sánchez, a cleaning woman, presented a medical certificate to her employer that would have kept her out of work for three days. Her employer, a government corporation, fired her.

Sánchez, who formerly worked for the municipal services corporation in Santiago de Cuba, had transferred to CIMEX, a government-owned conglomerate whose operations extend from tourism to retail sales.

It was to CIMEX administrators that Sánchez brought her medical certificate.

Sánchez said she has complained to the administration itself and to the union, also run by the government, and that she was told there was nothing to be done, because her job was subject to an agreement and that it would cease whenever the employer decided it, with or without cause.