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Suit Says Cuba Offered 'Slaves' for Curacao Company
Cuba's communist government acted as a slavemaster, forcing Cuban workers to labor against their will for a Curacao ship repair company, according to charges filed in a lawsuit in Miami two months ago and first reported Friday by The Associated Press. As many as 100 Cuban shipyard workers are being forced to work against their will at Curacao Drydock Co., a ship repair company, which has an agent in Delray Beach, Klattenberg Marine Associates, according to the Miami Herald.
The plaintiffs - three workers who escaped and now live in Florida, allege they were ordered to work 16-hour shifts for $16 a month, a low wage but common in their native Cuba.
''We started work at 3 in the afternoon and kept working until 7 a.m. the following day,'' plaintiff Alberto Justo Rodríguez told the Herald. ``We worked in the worst, most uncomfortable parts of the ship. Where nobody wanted to go - that's where they sent the Cubans.''
According to the suit, the men often worked 112 hours a week for wages that amounted to a shocking three cents an hour. Rodríguez, a former shipyard worker in Cuba, testified he was summoned to the Ministry of Transportation in 2001 for a mandatory transfer to Curacao. Upon arrival on the Caribbean island, he says, his passport was seized.
He charged that he and up to 100 other Cubans worked on a joint venture with the Cuban government and Curacao Drydock, a company that does shipyard repair, including work for U.S.-based cruise lines, oil companies and shipping firms. In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs charged that the joint venture between the Cuban government and Curacao Drydock provides for Cuba to supply workers for the company, thus providing a source of cash for the Cuban government. Curacao Drydock, the suit also alleges, was aware that Cuban workers were being held against their will.
''They always told us if we didn't work, they'd throw us out of the country, fire us and send us to jail,'' Rodríguez said. ``Really, we were slaves. We didn't have a voice or a vote.''
In a written statement provided to the Herald by Curacao Drydock attorney Matt Triggs, many of the suit's allegations are directed at the Cuban government.
''There are allegations, however, regarding the health and safety of our employees that are of great concern to Curacao Drydock Co.,'' the statement said, stressing that the company has safety measures in place. ``Nevertheless, the company is undertaking a full investigation of the allegations.'' Among the plaintiff's allegations:
According to the Herald, the lawsuit was filed by Miami Beach lawyer John Andres Thornton under the Aliens Tort Act, which allows foreigners to file civil suits in U.S. federal courts when an international law has been violated. The suit seeks unspecified damages. No trial date has been set.
Curacao Drydock has asked the judge to dismiss the complaint for lack of jurisdiction.
Co-plaintiffs Fernando Alonso Hernández worked in Curacao from 1995 until he fled in January 2005. He and the third plaintiff, Luis Alberto Casanova, who worked in Curacao from 2002 until 2005, now work in shipyards in Tampa. One of the plaintiffs, Thornton said, now earns in an hour what he used to get in a month
Editor's note:
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics: Inside Cover Stories
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