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The Cuban Minister of Labor and Social Security, Jesús Otamendiz, spoke last Tuesday before the plenary of the 114th International Labor Conference of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Geneva, promising that Cuban workers "will never be left unprotected," as the country faces its worst energy and economic crisis in years.
Otamendiz led the Cuban delegation at the conference, which brings together representatives from governments, employers, and workers from the 187 Member States of the ILO, and which concludes this Friday in the Swiss city.
The official reported to the plenary what he described as a "war of economic warfare" by the United States against Cuba, with particular emphasis on the fuel embargo which, he stated, has been blocking supply to the island for over five months.
However, beyond the promises and the accusations against the United States, it did not provide details on how Cuban workers are being protected, who have been earning meager wages for decades.
"The sinister plan of the United States is to create a humanitarian crisis. They intend to suffocate the Cuban people so that a social explosion occurs," stated the minister before the conference delegates.
Otamendiz described the mechanisms that the regime claims to have activated to mitigate the impact on workers: relocation of those who become unemployed, a guarantee of 100% of the salary during the first month of inactivity and 60% starting from the second month.
That policy was formalized through Decree 149/2026, signed in April and published in the Official Gazette on May 28, which regulates the salary treatment of workers designated as "interrupted."
The energy crisis has had devastating consequences for the Cuban workforce. In March, around 300,000 workers in the tourism sector were left without income, and power outages have reached over 15 hours a day in several provinces.
The government has reassigned some of those workers to tasks such as garbage collection and food production, while claiming to have doubled the number of social workers and increased the social assistance budget.
Otamendiz also announced that a proposal for a new Labor Code will soon be presented to the National Assembly of People's Power, with its approval expected in July, following a process of public consultations that took place between September and November 2025.
The new code would consolidate 12 scattered regulatory provisions and, according to the regime, "will expand rights and guarantees across all labor sectors."
In a more confrontational tone, the minister also referred to what he described as threats of military aggression from Washington: "Cuba is a nation of peace and does not want conflict, but if it occurs, the Cuban people will know how to defend their sovereignty and independence, to the last consequences."
The regime's discourse before the ILO contrasts with the reality faced by Cubans on the island, where fuel scarcity —exacerbated by sanctions that penalize countries selling oil to Cuba— has halted productive activities and partially collapsed the national electric power system.
In May, UN experts accused the United States of jeopardizing human rights in Cuba due to the fuel embargo, an accusation that Secretary of State Marco Rubio outright rejected by denying the existence of such a blockade.
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