With so many alternatives to increase the income of workers in the productive and service sectors, Elinier Verdecia Amoró is surprised that even in Matanzas’ entities the salary barely exceeds two thousand pesos.
He asked to intervene. He stood up in front of the microphone and expressed his annoyance: «I am overwhelmed to hear something like that», he said, and on him, all eyes of the 22nd Municipal Conference of the Central de Trabajadores de Cuba (CTC) in Matanzas, the sixth of 13 foreseen in the schedule.
«We were able to set the wage scale at 4,200 pesos thanks to Decree 87, we also applied individual and collective piecework payment systems, and we distributed profits. We exceeded the 12,000 pesos average income», said the secretary of the union section of the Military Industrial Technical Assurance Company No. 2.
«In the face of a problem that may affect wages or income, we know that the solution is not to raise prices. The solution is to produce more, to implement new projects to maintain the purpose of preserving an average of over 10,500 pesos per worker, which helps to deal with inflation».
In order for Decree 87 not to be exclusive to only 14 entities in Matanzas, and for other benefits to favor its working population, Elinier calls for experienced managers and, above all, for a knowledgeable union to demand that the management use the powers granted to the Socialist State Enterprise.
The applause was joined by praise: «You see the value of having a prepared union secretary», said Ulises Guilarte De Nacimiento, and remarked that «given the regulatory dynamics of the labor scenario, the thought must always be to look for alternatives, not to let oneself be defeated by problems».
This path seems to be denied to the Poultry, Silo, Bellotex textile and Commerce companies, identified in the report as the quartet with more expenses than income in their management, although the latter is close to recovering, judging by the intervention of the director Julio Jordán Padrón, delegate to the Conference.
The negative repercussions of loss-making companies for the state budget were warned by Guilarte. «The union movement cannot have a conformist position on this issue… 48 powers have been granted to the main economic player. They must be applied,» he stated.
Here we are not standing idly by, expressed Osmar Ramírez, general secretary of the Provincial Committee of the CTC. «There is a system of attention to the 25 loss-making entities in Matanzas, including those of Comercio, with a movement from within that involves the fight against crime, the preservation of raw materials and the organization and control of the administrative and workers’ guard. There is still a lot of theft in the warehouses. We have to take care of the resources».
A stimulating example came from UBPC Mocha, the basic cooperative production unit that long ago left behind its gray period of losses to assume its role of food supplier to the city of Matanzas and have a complete livestock module, despite the fuel limitations that some crops are currently facing.
The only way to transform the difficulties is by working, warned Tamara Martínez, general secretary of the extraterritorial bureau of Empresa Provincial de Alojamiento Guanímar. «There will only be results if the union executive mobilizes, represents, uses well the Board of Directors, the assembly of affiliates and workers. It is necessary to demand, not to be the management’s little friend».
To promote the development of the territory we count on our union movement, said in the conclusions the first secretary of the Party in the municipality, Antonio Victor Gonzalez Imbert, after insisting on growing membership in the private sector, strengthening the political-ideological battle, socialist emulation and continue mobilizing workers in defense of the Revolution.
Isdalis Rodríguez, second secretary of the CTC, and Misael Rodríguez, top representative of the National Union of Construction Workers, attended the conference that ratified Reynier Reyes Urquiza as head of the CTC Municipal Committee in Matanzas.