For a more prepared union.

«We were able to set the wage scale at four thousand 200 pesos thanks to Decree 87, we also applied individual and collective piecework payment systems, and we distributed profits. We surpassed the twelve thousand pesos average income».

The union movement cannot assume a conformist position with loss-making companies, warned Ulises Guilarte de Nacimiento,  general secretay of the CTC.

Elinier Verdecia Amorós is surprised that still in entities in Matanzas province the salary barely exceeds two thousand pesos, with so many alternatives to increase the income of workers in the productive and service sectors.

He asked to intervene. He stood 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 Municipal Conference 22nd Congress of the Cuban Trade Workers Union (CTC) in Matanzas, the sixth of thirteen scheduled in the chronogram.

«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 average income of twelve thousand pesos», 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 above ten thousand 500 pesos per worker, which helps to deal with inflation».

So that Decree 87 is not exclusive to only 14 entities in Matanzas and other benefits favor its working population, Elinier calls for experienced directors and, above all, for a knowledgeable union, which demands the administration to use the powers granted to the Socialist State Enterprise.

The closed applause was joined by the praise: «You see what it is worth to have a prepared union secretary», expressed Ulises Guilarte de Nacimiento, to remark that «before the regulatory dynamics of the labor scenario, the thought must always be to look for alternatives, not to let oneself be defeated by the problems».

Elinier Verdecia taught the value of the union when it honors its essence.

This path seems to be denied to the Poultry, Silo, Bellotex textile and Commerce companies, pointed out 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 for the State budget of companies with losses were warned by Guilarte. «The union movement cannot have a conformist position with this matter… 48 powers have been granted to the main economic actor. They have to be applied,» he reasoned.

Here we are not standing idly by, expressed Osmar Ramirez, secretary general of the CTC provincial committee. «There is a system of attention to the 25 loss-making entities in Matanzas, including those of Commerce, 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 the 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 to 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 Martinez, general secretary of the extraterritorial bureau of the Provincial Company of Guanímar Lodging. «There will only be results if the union executive mobilizes, represents, uses well the spaces of the board of directors, of the assembly of affiliates and workers. It is necessary to demand, not to be the administration’s little friend».

To promote the development of the territory we count on our union movement, assured in the conclusions the first secretary of the Party in the municipality, Antonio Víctor González Imbert, after insisting on growing in the affiliation in the private sector, reinforcing the political-ideological battle, the socialist emulation and continue mobilizing the 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’s municipal committee in Matanzas.

Photos by the author.

Written by Eva Luna Acosta Armiñán,