Thousands of former sugarcane workers, some of whom had spent 50 years in the cane fields, assembled outside Presidential Palace in Santo Domingo yesterday, Wednesday 5 March to ask President Danilo Medina to emit a third decree for a pension increase to at least RD$10,000 per month. Group representatives told reporters from El Nuevo Diario that 22,000 cane workers had lost their jobs when many sugar mills closed or where mechanical sugar cane harvesters replaced their work. They added that workers at La Romana and the Vicini sugar mills were excluded from social security benefits. According to the workers, although they have a medical history of workplace accidents, they are denied social security services at the Salvador B. Gautier Social Security Hospital.
They reminded reporters that thanks to presidential decrees 245-12 and 666-12, over 4,000 sugarcane workers have received a pension.