Cane workers claim government tricked them

[NewsWhore]

Earlier this week, the nation's newspapers reported that the government had decreed pensions for over 2,000 retired workers in the sugar cane industry. Now, according to Hoy newspaper, it seems that only 19 of the former cane workers actually received the pensions. The spokesman for the Union of Cane Workers in the Bateyes, Juan Nunez, complained yesterday to reporter Sorange Batista that his people feel that they have been "mocked and deceived" by the government, since only 19 of the aging former cane workers who have been protesting outside the Presidential Palace received their pensions. Nunez said that most of the pensioners who benefitted were cane workers with links to officials, deputies, senators and who in many cases are much better off than the old men who are dying in the bateyes (cane cutter settlements). He cited one case of a man who is said to own 700 head of cattle and never paid a penny to the Social Security Institute (IDSS). He added that he had given deputy minister Sandra Severino 1,077 names, but "she took them and put them away and kept us expecting a solution until the decree was issued last Friday and only 19 of our people were given their pensions."

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