The first trade union bureau in the country for direct attention to new economic actors was constituted this Saturday in the commerce, gastronomy and services sector in Havana, a step of singular importance in the current activities of the Cuban workers’ movement and which responds to what was approved by the National Secretariat of the Central de Trabajadores de Cuba (CTC)The CTC (Workers' Central Union of Cuba) was founded on January 28, 1939 by Lázaro Peña under the name Confederación de Trabajadores de Cuba (Confederation of Cuban Workers) in November last year.
As defined by Isdalis Rodriguez Rodriguez, Second Secretary of the National Central de Trabajadores de Cuba (CTC)The CTC (Workers' Central Union of Cuba) was founded on January 28, 1939 by Lázaro Peña under the name Confederación de Trabajadores de Cuba (Confederation of Cuban Workers), the main task of this union structure now is to begin the process of creating union sections in the different marketing sectors and in the MSMEsAn acronym for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (In Spanish: mipymes) themselves, in order to have an impact on increasing membership. «But above all, she said, to represent and organize all workers, which is the main mission of the union in Cuba.
Commerce, gastronomy and personal and technical services are the sectors with the greatest presence of the so-called new economic actors in the country, hence the need to strengthen union work as soon as possible.
Betsy Díaz Velásquez, Minister of Internal Trade, informed that «today we have more than 250 thousand self-employed in this sector in the country, more than six thousand MSMEsAn acronym for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (In Spanish: mipymes) dedicated to trade and 166 non-agricultural cooperatives (CNA in Spanish) with a similar function, which brings the number of non-state workers to more than 340 thousand, while the state workers are around 190 thousand».
With the creation of the aforementioned extraterritorial trade union bureau, one of the first proposals of those who joined this new form of management was fulfilled: to join pure trade union structures, that is, to have their proposals and deliberations attended to by trade union members who also belonged to non-state work.
Leovanis Avila Góngora, member of the National Secretariat of the Central de Trabajadores de Cuba, speaking at the inaugural meeting held at the El Castillito Recreation Center, referred to the positive response to the sector’s criteria and pointed out that the new union bureau is a very important mechanism for addressing and responding to these workers’ unresolved issues.
He also emphasized that this new trade union structure will have to defend the policies of the sector in front of companies, ministries and government authorities, pointing out that it is not enough to elect this executive committee «because now we have to work in the trade union section and in the municipality, using all the spaces to continue favoring more and more these new forms of management.
«Today, a structure with greater legal and juridical strength has been created to represent the non-state sector related to commerce, gastronomy and services, therefore the importance of the step we are taking as a union,» he stressed.
«But the Bureau won’t be able to exercise its high responsibility, he said, if the rest of the structures don’t work, so we have to adapt trade union work to the characteristics of the non-state sector, which nationally, with the peasants’ union, comprises about 30% of the country’s workforce.
Finally, he pointed out that the new forms of management are a force to be consolidated, strengthened and expanded.
The meeting was also chaired by Yulián León Rondón, general secretary of the National Union of Commerce and Gastronomy Workers, and Alfredo Vázquez, head of the Central de Trabajadores de Cuba in Havana.
