The 22nd CTC Congress Deserves a Better Union

Juanita Perdomo

hace 2 semanas

«Promoting the growth of food production would be the best contribution of the trade union movement to the economic performance of the country. There will be no better contribution than that,» said Ulises Guilarte de Nacimiento, member of the Party’s Political Bureau and General Secretary of the Central de Trabajadores de Cuba (CTC).

«We have to reach the final sessions of the 22nd Congress, materializing the purpose with concrete results,» he said in the western territory of Matanzas, where he presided over the Provincial Conference of the Organic Process of the Great Event, the first to be held in the nation before the final sessions of the Great Event in April 2025.

«Agriculture can give us some light in the economic relief of the country, as well as the sugar industry,» he noted. Matanzas is a bastion in both sectors, he acknowledged. But the contracts with producers are considerable. When will the municipal program of agricultural and food self-sufficiency really be achieved, he asked.

The question was answered by Carlos Luis Naranjo, delegate of the Ministry of Agriculture (MINAG), who summarized what had been done in a period in which «3,000 more beneficial owners were hired than the previous year», a difficult task, he warned, because of how complicated the process becomes when the dairy and tourism facilities owe the producers.

Selected in the report for inclusion among the 17 entities and 38 base business units with more expenses than income, MINAG pointed out the alternatives that led the agro-industrial company Victoria de Girón to reduce by 2 million pesos at the end of November, the economic loss of 74 million pesos with which it ended last year.

«The most important thing is to do better with what we have and to save,» he said. «We will tighten our belts to end the year without losses,» he announced, after regretting that the mango harvest had not been as good as expected due to the weather and that the export plan, the source of foreign exchange so much in demand by the economy, had not been met.

Guilarte de Nacimiento praised the actions of the agro-industrial company Victoria de Girón, but admitted that it was the exception and not the rule in a country where there are more than 300 companies with losses, something he said was unacceptable in a socialist state enterprise. «When this happens, the union cannot stand idly by.

He noted that without the decisive influence of the organization, it would be impossible to advance food sovereignty, not with slogans but with concrete actions, he said, referring to the need to make this objective a top operational priority.

The good examples of what has been achieved here with two items such as beans and rice are proof of what can be done in the territories to respond when the importation of the basic food basket cannot be completed and to respond with local crops, said Guilarte de Nacimiento.

If we do what we have to do, we will contribute to the economy, to the prosperity of the workers and their families, because the offers will increase and the salary will recover its purchasing power, he estimated. In this aspect, he spoke about the debt with the self-consumption, «the other great task that we must continue to promote», because it is true that enough land has been requested by the workplaces, but «they have not been put to produce in all the places», said Mario Sabines Lorenzo, first secretary of the Provincial Committee of the Party.

The Juan Gualberto Gómez International Airport, with its farm and organic farming, was cited as the best reference point, in a point that ended with the commitment of the Mario Muñoz Sugar Company, in charge of delivering sugar cane to its counterpart Jesús «Rabí» Sablón, the only one of the four sugar mills that will produce sugar during the 24-25 harvest.

Proof of the productive potential of Matanzas, essential in the income structure of the island, were the interventions of the delegates of the Antonio Guiteras Thermoelectric Power Plant, tourism and oil, these last two sectors prevented so far from realizing their plans.

Speaking specifically of the leisure industry, Amaurys Echavarría, General Secretary of the Royalton Hicacos Hotel Union, asked to speak to reiterate that for more than two years the workers there have not been able to benefit from the wealth created because the shareholders have not been able to agree on the creation of the Economic Stimulation Fund, the equivalent of profits, as required by the Foreign Investment Law for mixed hotels.

Osmar Ramirez Ramirez, general secretary of the CTC in the province of Matanzas, said that the long delay in resolving the issue was reflected in the turnover of workers. «Despite the attention of the labor movement, we have not received the response that this demand deserves. Although there is no violation of the law in this case, we must find a way to stimulate the collective that has achieved the best results in the last five years. A definitive solution is needed,» he urged.

It is necessary to shorten the time for solutions, said the first secretary of the party in Matanzas, a call that fits like a glove on all fronts, especially in a province that needs to work harder because of its commitment to the people and the country. «There is a lack of industriousness», he considered in his medullary intervention.

If we really did everything we said here, we would have the credibility we need as union leaders,» said Arnaldo Díaz Hiedra, a delegate from the emblematic Sol Palmeras Hotel. «The prestige of the union is its truth.

Guilarte de Nacimiento used the force of his sentence to ask the 200 delegates to play a leading role in their work collectives at this stage of the organic process and, above all, in the context of the coexistence of the socialist state enterprise with a wide variety of private economic actors.

Faced with this complexity, he asked, «What kind of union is needed to rebuild practices and actions in the representation of legitimate rights and to have a superior influence in the mobilization of workers to exploit all the productive reserves that exist in the country?

He replied that we need a creative trade union movement that is a counterpart, that uses all its power to make the right demands of the administration, that is recognized for its usefulness and that has leadership. And all this will be won with knowledge and, above all, with performance, Guilarte de Nacimiento stressed.

The final day of the Provincial Conference was preceded by the analysis of the behavior of internal indicators of the organization in Matanzas, urged to make a change in the completion of the cadres, and to increase the percentage of affiliation in the non-state labor population, where there were declines, with a marked decrease in 2023, a phenomenon that, although to a lesser extent, also affected the state source.

Osmar Ramírez Ramírez was ratified as head of the Provincial Committee of the CTC, a body that recognized the performance of Rogelio Leyva Castellanos, who was released from his duties as a member of the Secretariat to be promoted to other functions within the trade union movement itself.

The Provincial Conference of Matanzas concludes a cycle that began with the reading of the Call, seminars, the strengthening of grassroots organizations, and municipal conferences, a step that also marks the entry into a decisive stage in the organic process of the 22nd Congress of the CTC, which is about to enter its final sessions.

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