Cuba - 2011

Population: 11,200,000
Capital: Havana
The Central de Trabajadores de Cuba (CTC) continues to be the only organisation authorised to represent workers’ interests. The Cuban government continues to forbid independent unions. The law does not specifically recognise the right to collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
or to strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike .
ILO Core Conventions Ratified:
29 Forced Labour (1930) 87 Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise (1948) 98 Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining (1949) 100 Equal Remuneration for Work of Equal Value (1951) 105 Abolition of Forced Labour (1957) 111 Discrimination in Employment and Occupation (1958) 138 Minimum Age for Employment (1973)

reported violations - 2011

Murders: none reported
Attempted Murders: none reported
Threats: none reported
Injuries: none reported
Arrests: none reported
Imprisonments: none reported
Dismissals: none reported
Documented violations - actual number of cases may be higher

Background

Cuba reached 2010 suffering the hard-hitting economic effects of the international financial crisis, the U.S. embargo, the devastation left by a series of hurricanes, the fall in the price of nickel (its chief export) and the decline in revenues from tourism. According to official statistics, around 83% of the workforce is employed by the state and an additional 5% is employed by cooperatives closely linked to the state. Half a million jobs were slashed between November 2010 and the first quarter of 2011 under the plan to restructure the Cuban labour force. According to the national workers’ centre Central de Trabajadores de Cuba (CTC), which is the only officially recognised union in the country, these cuts correspond to the process of updating Cuba’s economic model and the economic plans for the 2011-2015 period. The layoffs in the public sector could affect up to 1.8 million workers.

The regime did not meet the 7 November deadline for the release of 12 political prisoners and prisoners of conscience (from the Group of 75) who refused to leave the island under the deal stemming from talks between the Catholic Church and the Spanish government. Dozens of other opposition figures were forced to leave the island, having agreed to go into exile in Spain, along with their relatives, in return for their release from jail.

ILO Core Conventions Ratified:
29 Forced Labour (1930) 87 Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise (1948) 98 Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining (1949) 100 Equal Remuneration for Work of Equal Value (1951) 105 Abolition of Forced Labour (1957) 111 Discrimination in Employment and Occupation (1958) 138 Minimum Age for Employment (1973)
Population: 11,200,000
Capital: Havana

reported violations- 2011

Documented violations - actual number of cases may be higher

Trade union rights in law

Basic trade union rights are not adequately protected. While the law guarantees the right to organise, trade unions must also play a political role and contribute to developing and supporting the government. Workers’ rights are thus subordinate to political objectives. There is only one officially recognised trade union, the Central de Trabajadores de Cuba (CTC), which has a monopoly with respect to representation of workers vis-à-vis government instances.

The right to collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
is not specifically recognised, and the provisions that regulate how collective agreements are to be concluded are too detailed. The law also requires the approval of the National Office for Labour Inspection labour inspection An authority responsible for ensuring compliance with labour laws and legal provisions relating to protection of workers through the inspection of workplaces. for registration of collective agreements in many activity sectors. In the event of differences between the parties, the law imposes compulsory arbitration arbitration A means of resolving disputes outside the courts through the involvement of a neutral third party, which can either be a single arbitrator or an arbitration board. In non-binding arbitration, the disputing parties are free to reject the third party’s recommendation, whilst in binding arbitration they are bound by its decision. Compulsory arbitration denotes the process where arbitration is not voluntarily entered into by the parties, but is prescribed by law or decided by the authorities.

See conciliation, mediation and provides for interference or intervention by the authorities and by the CTC.

The right to strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike is not provided for in the legislation, and its exercise in practice is prohibited.

Additional information regarding the legislation
ILO Core Conventions Ratified:
29 Forced Labour (1930) 87 Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise (1948) 98 Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining (1949) 100 Equal Remuneration for Work of Equal Value (1951) 105 Abolition of Forced Labour (1957) 111 Discrimination in Employment and Occupation (1958) 138 Minimum Age for Employment (1973)
Population: 11,200,000
Capital: Havana

reported violations - 2011

Documented violations - actual number of cases may be higher

In practice

Repression stifles labour rights: The number of politically-motivated arrests was estimated to have reached 1,224 in November 2010, which discourages the formation of independent trade unions, as the authorities view exercising freedom of association freedom of association The right to form and join the trade union of one’s choosing as well as the right of unions to operate freely and carry out their activities without undue interference.

See Guide to the ITUC international trade union rights framework as a political activity.
Political legislation overrides trade union laws: There have been no changes in the Cuban labour legislation. The trade union movement is controlled by the Cuban state, and the leaders of the single union CTC are not elected by the workers but appointed by the state and the Communist Party of Cuba.
Workers obliged to relinquish their rights: The Cuban labour legislation and the monopoly of the only trade union organisation recognised by the state mean that workers have to relinquish the defence of their rights and contribute, rather, to regime’s economic and political objectives.
No independent trade unions: There has been no change in Cuba’s state policy of prohibiting the formation of independent trade unions and persecuting their founders, confining the scope of their action to supposedly dissident operations.
ILO Core Conventions Ratified:
29 Forced Labour (1930) 87 Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise (1948) 98 Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining (1949) 100 Equal Remuneration for Work of Equal Value (1951) 105 Abolition of Forced Labour (1957) 111 Discrimination in Employment and Occupation (1958) 138 Minimum Age for Employment (1973)
Population: 11,200,000
Capital: Havana

reported violations - 2011

Documented violations - actual number of cases may be higher
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