http://themilitant.com/2017/8127/812753.html
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Vol. 81/No. 27 July 25, 2017
‘Every attack on our revolution destined to fail,’ Cuban unionist says
on US tour
BY ANDREA MORELL
BERKELEY, Calif. — Some 60 people heard Víctor Lemagne Sánchez,
secretary-general of Cuba’s Hotel and Tourism union, speak here June 29
at Communications Workers of America Local 9119 union hall. The meeting
was part of a national tour, with meetings with unionists and supporters
of the Cuban Revolution in Los Angeles, San Diego, Chicago, New York and
Baltimore. This was the first time in 17 years that a Cuban union leader
succeeded in getting a visa to tour the U.S.
The goal of the tour, Lemagne explained, is to develop links between
workers and unions in the U.S. and Cuba. The Cuban Workers Federation
(CTC) is working to make it easier for unionists from the U.S. to
organize trips and meetings with their counterparts in Cuba.
Lemagne is a member of the executive committee of the CTC and a delegate
to Cuba’s National Assembly from the city of Trinidad, a popular tourist
destination.
Lemagne began with a slide show that documents the damage done to the
Cuban people by Washington’s economic embargo. “Every attack against our
revolution by the Empire is destined to fail,” he said. “Our response is
to continue with the economic development of our country, our
revolutionary process.”
Workers in Cuba’s tourism industry see themselves as on the front lines
of the struggle, Lemagne said. The industry has expanded rapidly,
including a growing sector of self-employed nonstate workers. In 2012,
he said, his union had only 345 members outside the state sector. Today
they have 27,000.
The situation in Cuba is different than in the U.S. and other capitalist
countries because workers and farmers have political power. They don’t
have to fight for contracts boss by boss, Lemagne said, because workers’
rights and job conditions — in state-owned and private companies — are
written into the country’s laws. His union makes sure that nonstate
workers get the same rights and protections as state workers.
A record 3.52 million people visited Cuba last year. Even though the
U.S. government maintains restrictions on visits to the island, Lemagne
said, travel from the United States has soared. People coming from the
U.S. now make up the second largest number next to Canada.
Many of the larger hotels are joint ventures, 51 percent owned by Cuba
and 49 percent by foreign companies. Managers from abroad have to abide
by Cuban labor law, he said, or they’re removed.
As tourism has mushroomed, with union membership rising alongside it,
the union has fought to reduce workers’ workload to protect their
bodies, he said. They work to limit the number of rooms cleaners in the
hotels have to work per shift, to keep hours down, and for members to
monitor safety on the job.
Unions are strong in other Cuban industries, he said. Ninety-five
percent of Cuba’s workers belong to a union, and membership is
“voluntary and conscious.”
Lemagne noted, with a smile, that tourism workers in Cuba have
guaranteed vacations, sick pay, social security and other benefits that
hotel workers in the U.S. are fighting to get into their contracts.
He also said with pride that Cuban tourism workers donate whatever tips
they get to cancer research and treatment, a total of $23 million to date.
Alicia Jrapko of the International Committee for Peace, Justice, and
Dignity, a sponsor of the meeting, urged from the chair that
participants step up efforts to demand that Washington lift its
punishing embargo, as well as return the territory of Guantánamo to
Cuba. The U.S. rulers occupy Cuban territory there against the will of
the Cuban people, maintaining a prison notorious for its physical and
legal abuses.
Clarence Thomas, retired secretary-treasurer of International Longshore
and Warehouse Union Local 10, joined Lemagne on the platform.
“International labor solidarity is sound union policy,” Thomas said,
noting Local 10’s participation in the campaign to free the Cuban Five,
Cuban revolutionaries framed up by Washington and imprisoned for years
in U.S. jails until a growing international campaign finally won their
freedom and return to Cuba.
Related articles:
Miami car caravan protest: ‘Yes to travel to Cuba!’ (photo box)
Openings to join anti-imperialist fight: ‘Che brigade’ to Cuba, Youth
Festival in Sochi
Sign up for Cuba brigade, youth festival
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