The Cuban regime was re-elected deputy member of the Administrative Council of the International Labor Organization (ILO) in Geneva, despite the violations of their rights suffered by workers on the Island and has been indicated by the organization itself.
The presence of the Cuban regime in the ILO Administrative Council It implies that you will actively participate in the decisions and policies of the organization for three years. Among the decisions in which it will intervene is the election of the general director and the presentation of the organization’s program and budget at the International Labor Conference.
The re-election of the regime was announced this Friday on the social network the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINREX) of Cuba, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla.
The minister highlighted that “with 193 votes” The Cuban State was the one that received the most support among those in Latin America and the Caribbeanwhich he attributed to the regime’s supposed commitment to workers’ rights.
“It is the recognition of #Cuba’s commitment to labor and union rights,” wrote the chancellor, although these are precisely the rights that the regime violates workers.
Workers cannot join independent unions from the official Cuban Central Workers Union (CTC)subordinated to the interests of the regime, nor do they have the right to carry out strikes due to low salaries and poor working conditions.
State workers who openly express their dissent are expelled from their workplaces. The non-state sector is not exempt from these violations of rights, since many of the apparently private companies are directed by people connected to power.
Cuban professionals, mainly health professionals, who the regime exports to other countries In the so-called “missions”, they are stripped of at least 75% of the salaries paid for them by the governments that hire them.
The lack of freedom of association in Cuba has been pointed out by the ILO itself on several occasions. In November 2023, its Committee on Freedom of Association (CLS) included the Island in its annual report on union violations around the world and “firmly” urged the Government to guarantee the recognition of the Independent Trade Union Association of Cuba (ASIC)as well as their free functioning and exercise of union activities.
Two years earlier, in March 2021, the Board of Directors approved by a large majority a report presented by the CLS concerning the ASIC complaint against the regime for violating the fundamental right to freedom of association, representation and Collective negotiation.
By approving the ASIC complaintthe organization decided to recommend Havana to guarantee the recognition of that organizationas well as to allow “their free functioning and exercise of union activities.”
In addition, The ILO called on Havana to refrain “from unduly restricting the right of the leaders and members of the ASIC to freely organize and exercise their union activities, even when they are held outside the country”, for which reason he asked to guarantee them “the necessary freedom of movement in the national territory to be able to carry out their activities.” unions without interference from the authorities”.
This did not prevent Havana from being elected a member of the organization’s Board of Directors two months later. At that time, she received 214 votes, as Rodríguez Parrilla recalled in X.
