Focus: The Union's Dual Role in Cuban Labour Restructuring

Abstract

INTERNATIONAL union rights Page 3 Volume 23 Issue 1 2016 FOCUS ❐ LATIN AMERICA The Union’s Dual Role in Cuban Labour Restructuring Notwithstanding active support for State-initiated reform that has contradicted workers’ immediate interests, the CTC has asserted critical independence camp acknowledge that recent labour law reform ‘challenges the unions in their dual roles of developing the Revolution’s ‘socialist state of workers’ in general, and of protecting workers rights in particular ’ (Ludlam 2013). Thus, this article’s examination the union’s role in contemporary labour restructuring fills a gap in empirical data with respect to the CTC’s status as a ‘two-way transmission belt’ responsible for resolving contradictions arising between the state and workers during reform. Methodology Because of its national economic importance and union density, Matanzas, the second largest province in Cuba, is ideal for examining the role of the CTC during labour restructuring. Comprised of 13 municipalities, Matanzas is responsible for 4.6 percent of total national production, and 45 percent of the income generated by the tourist industry, a sector to which most workers displaced in the state sector are expected to be redeployed. Moreover, 17 of the CTC’s 19 affiliated trade unions have branches in Matanzas, servicing over 290,000 members through 5,828 local affiliates, with 23,000 leaders at the local level. Table 1 and Table 2 show state sector production by product and national trade unions under the CTC umbrella by industry, respectively. This article presents qualitative data collected using three methods: semi-structured interviews with union leaders, participant observation of workers in their assemblies, and content analysis of union documents. Specifically, the author conducted a one-on-one interview with a key CTC official involved with the workforce reduction process at the national level. This semi-structured interview employed open-ended questions about the CTC’s support for workforce reduction, workers ’ response, and the impact of restructuring on workers’ rights. Additionally, a 3-hour panel interview with 9 of the 17 CTC affiliates in the region was conducted at the CTC’s Matanzas office on the topic of implementation at the local level. To ground the interview data, the author attended worker assembly meetings at two state enterprises in the vital tourist sector: the Museum of Slavery and Las Cuevas restaurant, both chosen because workers were actively engaged in the restructuring of their enterprises. Finally, to understand existing worker protections , and the impact of on-going labour reform, the author participated in an educational exchange with Cuban jurists. In conjunction with the exchange, the CTC provided internal training materials, including paper and digital copies of the constantly evolving labour code up to that point, (Código de Trabajo 2011), as well as complementary labour law materials. All research occurred in March 2011, thee months following the conclusion I n May 2011, the Cuban Communist Party adopted a set of socio-economic guidelines that emerged after a nationwide mass consultation between the State and workers. As the Cuban political economy took another swing toward market liberalisation, some of the reforms have been seen by outside commentators as an erosion of worker labour protections. Even on the island, there are concerns. For instance, one of the most workercontested policies has been the state’s workforce reduction plan, seeking to shift 20 percent of workers from guaranteed security of state employment to the growing non-state sector. Even as the CTC (Central de Trabajadores de Cuba), Cuba’s official trade union federation, contends with worker concerns , it has continually supported the state’s policy . This article focuses on early implementation of labour restructuring to examine the CTC’s dual role as state mobilising agent and defender of workers’ rights. I argue that notwithstanding active support for state-initiated reform that has contradicted workers’ immediate interests, the CTC has asserted critical independence from the Cuban party-state in representing workers’ rights. It is well settled that traditional communist unions are tasked with dual roles arising from simultaneous obligations to support the partystate ’s economic policy and to represent workers’ interests (Evenson 2003). Sometimes referred to as ‘mediators’ responsible for resolving contradictions between the party and civil society (Ashwin 1999), unions in most...