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FOR THREE days last January, some 60 construction trade unionists from all over the country were involved in the complex task of affiliating the workers of more than 270 in the construction sector in Havana. There were many experiences, some comforting, others worrying, all of them educational.
In the meeting, a summary of the three days of meetings, the trade unionists presented their assessments and points of view, of which we publish both the most significant and repeated.
We were sincere, we did not promise them anything, only that we wanted to represent them.
- There are that are interested in getting involved in food production, but they say that it is difficult for them to obtain farms or plots of land to establish themselves, although others told us that they do not make any donations because the government does not give them anything.
- Two of these structures said they wanted to paint and improve a playground with their own resources. They approached the mayor of the municipality, but have had no response.
- Of those visited, only 52% are willing to join the union. They argue, among other reasons, lack of trust and credibility in the union section, they do not feel attended to.
- There are many that appear in the Commercial Register with 60 or 70 workers, but in practice they only have 5 or 6.
- Of the total we had registered, 65 no longer exist, as their owners live in other municipalities or provinces, changed ownership, and some have even emigrated.
- They are generally well-trained people and in order to debate with them we trade unionists have to train ourselves very well.
- After the affiliation of their workers, in one of them they received 46,000 pesos of Mi Aporte a la Patria, and in others 5,000 pesos and 2,000 pesos.
- Only 33 of the worksites visited have Collective Bargaining Agreements, although they are far from what they should contain, as we found that they only include a few of the interests of the parties involved. In addition, it is necessary to continue reviewing the violations in the contracts signed with some .
- It was demonstrated that at the time of their creation, some elements directly related to workers’ rights were not taken into account, such as vacations, vacation pay, and the treatment of working mothers and pregnant women. In some they tell workers that they can take vacations, but they do not pay them. In others they did not pay them because they earned enough.
- There are in which if a worker has an accident at work, he/she is attended, but not as the Labor Code states. They give him some money and nothing more; without the monthly support legislated.
- According to many owners, their biggest concern is with the banks. They say that there is a lot of financial indiscipline in the banks and it is very difficult for them to withdraw money.
- An owner did not attend to us. We interacted with her through the window because she did not even open the door. She said that she did not want to join the union, and added, very annoyed, that no one in her MSME could join, that anyone who wanted to join had to leave. We told her that she could not decide for others and she replied that no one could make her join. This case will have to be analyzed in greater depth.
- In another one they sent us in and we had a polite conversation and at the end they said: «Look, I don’t want to affiliate». Well, we have to visit those people again, because in their answers they indicate that we could affiliate them.
- Many have been visited by the union at some point, but others have never been visited by the union.
- Executives of complain about non-payments by budgeted companies. They are owed a lot of money, a matter in which many millions of pesos are involved.
- We met a small business owner who doesn’t want women there, she says she doesn’t pay for certification or maternity leave. She only wants men on her site.
And we ask ourselves: How can we go against the labor legislation in effect in the country?
Voluntary, not mandatory membership
According to the statutes of Cuban trade unionism, affiliation is a voluntary act of the worker, with no other limit than the obligation to respect the statutes of the organization. No one may be forced to join a union or to endure direct or indirect forms of pressure to join or not to join.
This does not even remotely limit the adequate and logical action of the union structures in order to maximize the number of members and thus fulfill basic postulates such as their representation, the defense of their rights and aspirations and the channeling of their concerns.
At the last Plenary Session of the National Council of the Central de Trabajadores de Cuba (), in November 2023, the difficult situation existing in terms of unionization among the new actors of the economy was exposed and the construction sector was mentioned among those with the most complicated situation.
Ulises Guilarte De Nacimiento, member of the Political Bureau of the Party and secretary general of the , then recalled the dissatisfaction of the union leadership with the current levels of unionization, «and pointed out the low percentage of workers in the non-state sector».
The phenomenon is present throughout the labor scaffolding of the country, but with greater impact among the so-called new actors of the economy, that is, in the private sector. Proof of this are the latest national conferences of several unions, where the aforementioned decrease and the strong and negative implications that such a situation may have were made evident.
It cannot be forgotten that there are economic sectors in which more than 30 % and more of their workers are already in the private sector. Therefore a truth is imposed: there are no secrets. It is the affiliation the first task of the trade union organizations and for its boosting a lot of work is needed, a lot of will, to permanently listen to the concerns of the workers.
In the midst of the current complexities of the Cuban labor scenario, the trade union movement is challenged to greatly improve its methods and performances in order to increase its membership, which has declined in recent years.
During the organic process and in the final days of last year’s Second National Conference of the Construction Union, several participants highlighted the decreasing trend of an already low membership, which contributed to the implementation of initiatives to unblock the issue among those working in .
Let’s get down to work
The start was in Havana, where only 4.1 % of its non-state workers were unionized. More than 37,000 workers had yet to join.
After the complicated task, the participating union leaders emphasized the need to widespread the experience of exchanging one-on-one with the members of the non-state forms of management, while referring to the benefits of the study to which the Labor Code is subjected in order to adapt it more to the imprint contributed by the significant increase in the number of new actors in the national economy.
Misael Rodríguez Llanes, general secretary of the National Union of Construction Workers, pointed out that this organization has a total of a little more than 124 thousand members. «The challenge is to visit the 1,500 that we have throughout the country, because although we have affiliated more than 12,500 among the non-state workers, we still have a little more than 91,500 left».
Leobanys Ávila Góngora, of the National Secretariat of the , made reference to maintaining systematicity in the affiliation work, and remarked that in these three days more had been achieved than in months of work, something that could not be reversed.
He also noted that it was necessary to work with those who have now refused to unionize. «It will be a way to prevent those ideas from prevailing over the interests of the work groups.»
