POWER IN CUBA The unions are actually transmission belts for the administration and implementation of production. Raul Castro declared that the « ... unions are supposed to be autonomous, but must be poutically guided by the Party and must follow its policies ... » The 13th Congress of the CTC declared that: « ... the functions of the unions are to cooperate in improving management performance; strengthen labor discipline; assure attendance at work; increase production; eradicate absenteeism, malingering and carelessness ... » (31). « ... The union could participate in the administration of the enterprise through two institutions, Production Assemblies and Management Councils (Consejos de Direcciôn). These two institutions are the top administrative bodies at all work centers ... » (32). « ... each Management Council is composed of an administrator, his or her top assistants, the worker elected union representative, the Communist Party nucleus and the local branch of the Communist Youth Organizations ... » (33). « ... the Assembly could make recommendations but the manager could accept, reject, or modify the recommendations as he sees fit. . . unions are not allowed to intervene in the determination of salaries, hiring or firing, dismissal of managers, or in planning ... » (34). European, American and many Latin American workers actually exercise more workers' control than do the Cuban workers. There was, in fact, more workers' control before Castro's reglme came to power. Mllitarlzation of Labor A CCORDING to Gerald H. Reed who studied the Cuban educatlonal system cturing his long visit to Cuba: «... the plan for the Technological Instruction Institutes converted these institutions into military centers. The students live under strict mBitary discipline and complete their draft obligations while they study ... (35). (31) Mesa-Lago, ibid., p. 82, 83. (32) Mesa-Lago, ibid., p. 84. (33) Zlmbal1st, Ibid. <34) Mesa-Lago, ibid., p. 84. (35) Comparative Education Review; June 1970, pgs. 136, 143. 59
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