LOS BAJOS DE HAINA, Dominican Republic — Some 100 workers came to a March 22 meeting here organized by Jesús Nuñez, at right, national coordinator of the Sugarcane Workers Union. The weekly meetings began at the end of January as a way to bring together the cane cutters from the sugarcane fields — mostly Haitian-born or of Haitian descent — and the largely Dominican-born sugar workers from the sugar refineries and other industries in a common fight for pensions and medical care. Most of the participants at the meeting were of Dominican descent, former sugar mill workers or from the free-trade zone near this heavily industrial town.
Workers here can retire when they turn 60. “The laws are written, but we need to take to the streets to get our rights. Everything else is deception,“ Nuñez told the meeting.
For the Haitian cane cutters the fight for pensions is even more difficult than for workers who are Dominican citizens, because the government often refuses to recognize their documents, Nuñez explained, pointing to a group of cane cutters at the meeting.
But many workers who are Dominican citizens also face obstacles. Hector Germán Guantes, 64, retired in 2021, but hasn’t been able to collect. “They say I’m 15 deductions short,” he told the Militant. According to government rules, you can’t collect until your monthly social security deductions have been taken out of your pay 360 times.