As we approach the second half of the year 2024, a period marked by multiple distortions that are not alien to the Cuban trade union movement.

The affiliates have common concerns that make up an inventory of problems, analysed in the current organic process to the 22nd Congress of the Central de Trabajadores de Cuba (CTC).

The list of obstacles includes the restrictions on fuel, lubricants and electricity, the high prices of the main inputs and the low implementation of budgets for the purchase of clothing, footwear and means of personal protection.

The list is completed by dissatisfaction with wages, non-compliance with payment dates, the failure to take advantage of high performance pay, as well as obstacles in the distribution of profits, issues in which it is not always those who contribute the most who receive the most, according to the discussions at the CTC’s Municipal Conferences, which are also in Summer Mode.

Another neuralgic issue – which has not reached the same heat in the analyses, although it is in the reports – is collective bargaining, because it is part of the Union’s exercise of representation.

The responses to workers’ complaints and claims are described as negative trends, and their texts reflect more of the same: the application of excessive disciplinary measures without the legal grounds to support them before the Labour Justice Body (OJL) and the Municipal People’s Court, often without the presence of the union leadership.

One such case is reported in the Avileño municipality of Morón. A security and protection officer was severely punished with a salary penalty, cancellation of payment for results, transfer to a centre outside her place of residence; the OJL ruled in favour of the administration, the Tribunal ruled to apply only a public reprimand before the labour collective and compensation for damages, while the administrative management remains reluctant before the law and the sanctioned continues like a pingpong ball, a matter for another reflection.

All of the above can be summed up in one sentence: tremendous machucadera. It is up to the trade union organisation to determine its responsibility for the problems that beset us and to act accordingly. What cannot happen is that nothing happens.