May 15, 1997

A LABOR DAY MARKED BY OBEDIENCE AND WORK

• Interview with Pedro Pablo Rubio Baldin, president of Union Sindical de Trabajadores de Cuba

HAVANA, (BPIC).-May 1st (Labor Day in many countries, Ed) is a holiday dedicated to all workers world-wide, regardless of whether they are affiliated or not to government authorized unions. Each year, on this date, workers parade, and their banners express their demands for different kinds of improvements and changes.

In Cuba, there are many independent unions (that is, not recognized by the government). One of them the USTC, Union Sindical de Trabajadores de Cuba, strives to organize laborers and employees from several economic areas in the country. USTC was founded on April 4, 1992, and it has several branches in different provinces. These branches have been able to add 4,000 other associations to their ranks. Together, they look up to the USTC as a means to point to international organizations the labor violations perpetrated by the Cuban government.

The President of the USTC, Pedro Pablo Rubio Baldin, in an interview with the BPIC stated that from 1890 to 1959, the Cuban working classes used the Labor Day parades to present demands to employers and to the government.

"Unfortunately", he added, "today, we look sadly at those historic dates, because workers in the island cannot make any demands to the government, which owns everything. The country demands obedience from its, and more work".

When asked about workers' salaries, Mr. Rubio Baldin stated that to the workers' detriment, the government has continued to expand the dollar markets where prices are unreachable for those receiving salaries in Cuban pesos.

"We can't lose from sight that this exclusive employer will not tolerate, even on Labor Day, any conversation about improving workers' salaries to come up to par with the prices of this double economy of farm markets and dollar stores."

On another matter, he stated that according to the Secretary General of the official workers' organization, Pedro Ros de Leal, there are approximately 200 deaths yearly resulting from work related injuries.

The President also said that this is typical of socialist systems, where there is only one omnipotent employer. "In here, the worker loses the right to protect himself, because State agencies which should be in charge of worker safety do not take care of or protect anybody".

On the subject of on-the-job injuries, the experienced independent union leader stated that in the free economies of capitalist countries, insurance companies are the ones who give true protection to workers, since these companies demand the implementation of safety measures in the workplace from the insured employers.

At the end of the interview, the USTC President congratulated workers from all over the world, and especially the ones affiliated to the USTC, exhorting them to follow the example of the Chicago Martyrs of 1886, and to continue the struggle for labor laws in Cuba that will guarantee a safe and just workplace. Mr. Baldin emphasized that when that moment arrives in our country, the working class will benefit, as it did in the past, from the accomplishments made by union leaders who gave their lives before and after January, 1959.

Translated for CubaNet by Lorenzo Rodriguez