With a sense of the situation in July 2025, the National Council of the Central Organization of Cuban Workers decided, with historical responsibility, to move the date of the 22nd Congress to mid‑2026.
Only after reaching that maximum democratic expression of the workers’ movement, turned into legitimate territorial representation, could the national consultation of the draft Labor Code be undertaken—a process that was to concentrate the entire union agenda.
Once that second stage was completed—an exercise in which more than three million workers contributed opinions and left the document ready for in‑depth analysis—there remained a third consideration: the extraordinary current economic scenario.
This context is, moreover, an additional reason to hold the 22nd Congress: an economic, commercial, and financial blockade, intensified and aggravated by fuel shortages, which limits the usual material resources for an event of such magnitude. Far from being an obstacle, this reality demands a Congress that is more realistic, participatory, and protagonistic.
Symbolism of a Setting
The confirmation that the 22nd Congress will be held in mid‑2026 was given by Osnay Miguel Colina Rodríguez, president of the Organizing Commission, during a voluntary work day at the Celia Sánchez organoponic garden, in Ciudad Escolar Libertad, Havana.
The setting from which he made the announcement sends a clear message about the importance of creative work, carried out by the mass of men and women in the state sector and, increasingly significantly, in the non‑state sector.
If the alliance of workers with farmers in building socialism has always been clear, today the idea gains strength that state and non‑state workers form a unity that is strengthened even through their non‑antagonistic contradictions, on the basis of defending the social project of the Revolution.
It is also telling that the voluntary work days were directed toward priorities such as food production and the installation of photovoltaic systems. More than a simple announcement of the event, they constituted a call to concentrate, from each workplace collective, on the decisive tasks to face the difficult current circumstances.
By proclaiming the decision to prevail in moments of maximum pressure exerted by the United States administration on Cuba, Colina Rodríguez reflects the sentiment of workers and their families: to emerge victorious once again, this time with the contribution of the 22nd Congress, called to be a space for debate, popular oversight, and renewed commitment of the working class.
