Cuban workers sanctioned for missing the May Day parade

Operators of Laboratorios Oriente, belonging to the conglomerate of biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries BioCubaFarma, reported that they were sanctioned in Santiago de Cuba for not attending the May Day parade.

The independent medium Cuban Diary He interviewed several workers from the aforementioned company, who confirmed that they did not attend the march, as they usually do with other massive events.

Gisela Bermúdez, a worker at Laboratorios Oriente, told the aforementioned publication that she was branded a repeat offender and punished for one month without salary incentives.

Likewise, the employee Olga Martínez received a reprimand at the Serum and Parenteral Solutions Plant because she lives 10 kilometers from Plaza Antonio Maceo and to get there, without transportation and in the middle of a blackout, he had to leave his house at 2:00 am.

The general director, Jorge Orestes Batista, told him that these reasons were not "justification for missing such an important celebration."

A third employee identified as Charles, from the plaster bandage line, could also be sanctioned for saying that "a country with shortages of all kinds could not afford to concentrate the people so that they would faint from hunger and ingratiate themselves with the Government ".

Other younger workers were also threatened with termination of their contracts and salary reductions.

According to Cuban Diary, the absence of workers in mass events reflects their rejection of the economic situation, the scarcity of food, the deterioration of purchasing power and the government policies that affect their families.

In other sectors such as higher education and health, students and teachers who did not participate in the parade were criticized and threatened, the publication highlights.

He points out that although in many places in the world the march for International Workers' Day is optional, in Cuba it is perceived as a political duty where workers do not make demands, but rather must express support for the regime.

Despite the serious national crisis, with endless blackouts, shortages of food and essential products, the collapse of basic services such as Health and Education, the regime continues to invest in massive marches that serve to prop up the government.

Díaz-Canel cynically called for the parade, saying it was an opportunity to celebrate the "resistance of the people."

On the island, peaceful demonstrations continue to be repressed. Recently, the regime sentenced peaceful protesters from Nuevitas to 15 years in prison who took to the streets in 2022 to demand that they turn on the power.