Cargando...Why a holiday on May Day?, asked a young man who is just starting out as a skilled worker, to the general secretary of his union section when he called him to participate next Wednesday in the mobilization to commemorate the holiday.
«In Cuba, as in most countries, May Day, called International Workers’ Day is a holiday, it is a commemoration of the international workers’ movement. It is a day used, worldwide, to carry out different social and labor demands in favor of the working classes,» he replied.
And why May 1st, asked the young man?
«May Day was instituted as International Workers’ Day in commemoration of the bloody repression suffered by the workers of the McCormick factory, in the city of Chicago, in 1886, when they demanded the reduction of working hours, which at that time were up to 16 hours a day.
«It is a festive day in most of the countries of the world, because it is a day of vindication of workers’ rights, since the origin of the protests favored significant advances for workers, the main one being the establishment of the 8-hour working day.»
«Both January 1st, the day of the triumphal entry of Fidel and the Rebel Army in Santiago de Cuba, announcing the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, and May 1st, are recognized in our Labor Code, days of official national commemoration and holidays.»
I understood,» said the young man from Havana, «the blood shed by the workers of Chicago was not in vain. And that deserves to be celebrated, see you at the José Martí Anti-imperialist Tribune …», but as a novice in these labor matters he asked: «And if you do not work, do they pay you for the day?
«On holidays or national commemoration days workers are paid the daily wage, unless those days coincide with their weekly rest, or with days on which they are enjoying paid vacation, unpaid leave or social security allowance.»
«However, he pointed out, labor activities will be suspended with the exception of those related to continuous production process industries and other urgent work and labor that cannot be postponed. Included in this case are transportation, hospital and assistance services, pharmacies, funeral homes and cemeteries; fuel stations, lodging services, tourist centers, communications and others authorized by law.
«According to the provisions of Law 116 Labor Code of December 20, 2013 in Article 111, paragraph c: workers who by the nature of their work are exempted from recess or who have to attend work because they have been enabled as a working day that day, are paid double the salary they are entitled to earn for the production performed or the actual time worked, including additional payments to which they are entitled.
«The employer and the worker by mutual agreement, when the worker so requests, may substitute double pay for the work done on that day, for single pay and the granting of a day off with the payment of salary,» the union leader argued, and asked the young man any other questions, and he answered:
«NO, as our National Hero said: It is time for a retelling, and a united march. SEE YOU.»
