The value of a prepared union • Trabajadores

Given the many alternatives to increase income for workers in the manufacturing and service sectors, Eliner Verdecia Amoró is surprised that even in the towns of Matanzas, wages rarely exceed two thousand pesos.

He asked to be allowed to intervene. He stood in front of the microphone and expressed his anger: “I am shocked to hear such a thing,” he said, and all eyes were on him at the 22nd Community Conference of the Central de Trabajadores de Cuba (CTC) in Matanzas, the sixth of 13 conferences planned in the program.

“Thanks to Decree 87, we were able to set the wage scale at 4,200 pesos, we also introduced individual and collective piecework wage systems and distributed the profits. We exceeded the average income of 12,000 pesos,” said the union secretary of the Military-Industrial-Technical Insurance Company No. 2.

“Faced with a problem that could affect wages or income, we know that the solution is not to raise prices. The solution is to produce more and implement new projects to achieve the goal of obtaining an average of over 10,500 pesos per worker, which helps fight inflation.”

To ensure that Decree 87 is not limited to 14 companies in Matanzas and that other benefits are extended to the working population, Eliner calls for experienced managers and, above all, a knowledgeable union to demand that management use the powers granted to the socialist state-owned company.

The applause was accompanied by praise: “You see how valuable a prepared union secretary is,” said Ulises Guilarte De Nacimiento, noting: “Given the regulatory dynamics of the world of work, you must always remember to look for alternatives and not let the problems get you down.”

This path seems to be closed to the companies Poultry, Silo, Bellotex Textile and Commerce, identified in the report as the quartet whose management has more expenses than income, although the latter is on the verge of recovery, according to the statement of its director and conference delegate Julio Jordán Padrón.

Guilarte warned of the negative impact of loss-making companies on the state budget. “The trade union movement cannot take a conformist position on this issue… The largest economic actor has been granted 48 powers. These must be applied,” he explained.

We are not standing by inactive here, explained Osmar Ramírez, Secretary General of the CTC Provincial Committee. “There is a system of attention for the 25 loss-making companies in Matanzas, including Comercio, with a movement from within that includes the fight against crime, the conservation of raw materials and the organization and control of administrative and worker protection. There are still many thefts in the warehouses. We have to take care of the resources.”

An inspiring example came from UBPC Mocha, a grassroots cooperative production unit that long ago left its grey phase of losses behind to assume its role as a food supplier for the city of Matanzas and to have a full livestock production despite the fuel shortages that some crops are currently struggling with.

The difficulties can only be solved through work, warned Tamara Martínez, general secretary of the extraterritorial office of the Guanímar Provincial Housing Company. “Results will only be achieved if the union leadership mobilizes, represents and makes good use of the board, the assembly of members and the workers. You have to make demands and not be the little friend of the management.”

“To promote the development of the territory, we count on our trade union movement,” said the first party secretary in the district, Antonio Victor González Imbert, in the conclusions, after insisting on expanding membership in the private sector, strengthening the political-ideological struggle, socialist competition and further mobilizing workers in defense of the revolution.

Isdalis Rodríguez, second secretary of the CTC, and Misael Rodríguez, chief representative of the National Union of Construction Workers, attended the conference, which confirmed Reynier Reyes Urquiza as president of the CTC municipal committee in Matanzas.