Havana/The discredit of the Cuban Electric Union (UNE) continues to grow, and not only because of the blackouts, but for the increasingly frequent work accidents suffered by its workers. On Friday, the state company itself reported, Linner Osmani Hernández Madroza suffered severe burns while working in a breakdown.
The Specialist of the electric guard of San Miguel del Padrón repaired a game with which he made contact, resulting in the burns of his two arms. According to the statement, the 35 -year -old worker was urgently transferred to the Miguel Enriquez hospital – known as the beneficial – where he was attended immediately.
Havana’s electricity company reported In his telegram channel that Hernández Madroza did not lose knowledge and is under medical care.
This accident adds to a worrying chain of similar incidents of UNE workers who, far from decreasing, seem to become increasingly frequent. The official note itself indicates that the causes of the fact by specialists in labor safety and health are being investigated.
At the beginning of this month Carlos Rafael López Ibarra diedTurbine operator of the Antonio Maceo thermoelectric plant in Santiago de Cuba (Renté), also as a consequence of the serious burns suffered a week earlier. “With deep pain we communicate the irreparable loss of our partner. Accompanying family and friends at this painful moment. We transmit our deepest condolences in the name of the Directorate of the Electric Union and of all its workers,” said the state company.
At the beginning of this month, Carlos Rafael López Ibarra, turbine operator of the Antonio Maceo Thermoelectric Central of Santiago de Cuba (Renté)
López Ibarra, 33, had suffered a work accident when he worked in the breakdown of a steam pipe that was failing during the start and synchronization of unit 5 of the thermal power plant. A leak produced the burns that, according to unofficial sources, reached 89% of their body.
In March 2024, Leonel Carroso Machín died, another liner of the Havana electricity company that fell from a post in the municipality of Boyeros. After the accident, the worker had been transferred to a hospital to be operated, but did not survive the intervention.
In October of that year, in a fire in the Pin Turkish Belgin Sultananchored in Havana Bay, eight workers were injured: three Cubans and the rest Turkish employees of Karpowership. Days later, Halil Karadeniz and Fuat Türkyilmaz, two of the foreign workers died at the Hermanos Ameijeras hospital, where they were hospitalized.
Every time one of these accidents is made public, the UNE is criticized by the working conditions of their employees, who work in dangerous conditions and with few measures and security equipment. A year ago, in an attempt to demonstrate that everything possible to avoid the blackouts, the company published images of several of its workers cleaning ashes inside a boiler without gloves, Nasobucos or glasses, implying that the high number of accidents is no accident.
In 2024, according to Official figures52 Cubans died in their workplace, one per week, despite the considerable decrease in occupational accidents that year, which fell from 1,498 (2023) to 934. However, the coefficient of deaths per 1,000 injured went from 33.7 in 2023 to 53.3 in 2024, a growth of almost 60%.
