The most important aspects of a construction project are the human resources, as well as the materials and methods to be used in order to execute a project with the highest quality. However, the entire structure rests on the foundations, which must be well calculated and set.

The working sessions held between 22 and 26 October in Havana by the national leaderships of the Cuban and Vietnamese Construction Workers’ Trade Unions (SNTC), allow us to ensure that the relations of friendship and cooperation between the two organisations are well established and are built on a solid foundation.

Such links, which extend to the General Confederation of Labour of Vietnam (CGTV), with which the Cuban Workers’ Central, CTC, maintains excellent relations, were acknowledged by Ulises Guilarte De Nacimiento, member of the Political Bureau of the Party and general secretary of the trade union organisation, who welcomed the visitors and told them that the Cuban Central is currently developing the organic process of its 22nd Congress, in a complex labour context that demands the strengthening of trade union leadership to continue defending the Revolution and work as a right.

He also stressed that construction activities are high risk, so it is vital to guarantee the means for health and safety, precisely one of the priorities of cooperation between the two trade union organisations.

«There are intentions to make donations of personal protection items, work tools and other resources for builders and personnel in the hydraulic sector, through medium and long-term projects,» said Misael Rodríguez Llanes, general secretary of the SNTC.

«Also important was the signing of agreements to develop initiatives based on solidarity and with a view to improving the design and negotiation of collective bargaining agreements, communication, the work of young and women workers, emulative movements in investment, the inauguration of training classrooms and other matters related to union operations.

«The issue of the attention to the grassroots structures that bring together the Vietnamese employees of the Sanving and Viglacera companies based in our homeland and the Cuban workers who work in the brotherly country was discussed in depth,» Misael emphasised.

Nguyén Ngoc Huyén, deputy general secretary of the SNTC and head of the Vietnamese delegation, said that the visit is a milestone and that «2025 has been identified as the Vietnam-Cuba Friendship Year, a stage of several important events, especially the celebration of the 65th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two nations».

Among the guidelines that will mark bilateral relations in the future, he mentioned the updating of the organisational model, unionisation, collective bargaining in the business sector and other tasks.

«The topics analysed will serve to promote cooperation actions, exchange of visits, strengthening of mutual support, support for multilateral forums and international solidarity activities,» the trade unionist emphasised.

In addition to exchanging with their counterparts and touring centres of historical interest, entities and works in the construction sector, the delegation of the Vietnam Construction Trade Union (Cong doan Xay dung Viet Nam) received the Armando Mestre Martinez Distinction, the highest moral stimulus conferred by the SNTC to workers, labour collectives and solidarity organisations.

The Vietnamese construction workers’ union was founded on 16 March 1957. It has about 145,000 members out of more than 7 million workers in the sector. The SNTC has 115,316 members (Authors Yimel Díaz Malmierca and José Luis Martínez Alejo).