The workers of the medium‑sized company Alegra SRL decided to create a union section and join the union of the Commerce, Gastronomy, and Services sector. They felt that this way they would work better, and Ernesto Céspedes Aguilar, administrator and majority partner, did not put up obstacles.
As Céspedes Aguilar explains, for the workers it is normal to dialogue with management, but they felt they wanted to go beyond that as well, so we supported them.
“In our company,” adds the representative, “we don’t want to distance ourselves from the social sphere. We are in gastronomic recreation services, but we collaborate with homes for children without parental support, with vulnerable populations, and we make offers to outstanding workers.”
During the May Day activities, Alegra’s workers were present, so for them, being part of a union was something logical.
As a result of the organic process of the 22nd Congress of the Workers’ Central Union of Cuba (CTC), across the country, as Idania Yordi Prieto—an official of the labor organization who works with new economic actors—explains, an intensive outreach began to increase the number of members and achieve better connection.
In Camagüey the task was arduous: of the more than 27,300 non‑state workers in the territory, 11,482 have been unionized, a little more than 30%.
Several micro, small, and medium‑sized enterprises (MSMEs) have also been approved, but only 313 are active, of which 11 are state‑owned. And although many have been operating for more than two years, only a few—about 46, with nearly 600 workers—are union‑linked.
Carrying out this process was of great importance, as Yordi Prieto points out, because with the approval of the Labor Code many regulations will grant them more rights, as workers.
Furthermore, “some new actors approach the CTC, but they are not the majority, so with this process we have been able to unite more with them and also address their problems,” the official concluded.
As described in the final sessions of the 22nd Congress of the CTC by the organization’s provincial secretary general, Jenry Puente Rodríguez, the unionization of non‑state workers is still a pending task. Although the most intensive phase of the process has concluded nationwide, in the Camagüey territory it will continue.
