LAS TUNAS, February 8 (Berta Mexidor, Agencia Libertad and Ramón Humberto Colás, Cuba Press) - Railroad workers at one of the most important sugar mills in eastern Cuba went on strike on Friday, February 4, shutting down the mill for 12 hours.
This is the first time workers staged a concerted work stoppage to underline their demands since 1959, when the revolutionary government co-opted the labor unions, turning them into little more than conduits to convey the latest directives to the membership.
Train crews at the Amancio Rodríguez sugar mill refused to carry the sugar cane from the fields to the mill protesting a sugar ministry initiative which links pay to productivity. Faced with fuel shortages, late fuel deliveries and equipment breakdowns, the workers argue it is impossible
to meet production quotas to make a decent wage.
On the appointed day, workers simply stayed home or refused to carry out their duties, in spite of the efforts of the authorities, who went as far as sending agents to the workers' homes to persuade them to go to work. Strike organizers acted in defiance of government authority and the
possibility of represive measures.
"There were a bunch of strangers around the mill; things got really ugly," said one worker of the Transportation Department.
Municipal authorities and the Department of State Security eventually agreed to find a solution to the problem. Workers in other departments cheered their co-workers' apparent victory. Townspeoples' comments regarded the strike as the most significant event in the area since the triumph of the
revolution in 1959.
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