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The Cuban government announced this Friday its intention to organize unemployed or temporarily suspended workers into community labor brigades, a proposal put forth by Miguel Díaz-Canel during the XXII Congress of the Central Workers' Union of Cuba (CTC), held at the Palace of Conventions in Havana.
The leader argued that, since workers spend more time in their neighborhoods than in their workplaces, the labor movement should reorganize outside of those centers.
"How do we organize them into community work brigades to assist with energy issues, food production, care for people with disabilities, fixing things for people, and providing services to them? We can only achieve this with your participation," stated Díaz-Canel before the delegates of the congress, according to the report released by the official website Cubadebate.
The event brought together 759 delegates, of whom 561 participated via videoconference from the provinces, in a hybrid format that reflects the ongoing economic and energy crisis facing the country.
Osnay Miguel Colina Rodríguez, the new president of the CTC, presented the central report and also proposed creating comprehensive brigades in the communities consisting of plumbers, bricklayers, carpenters, and electricians who are unable to work in their usual workplaces due to the crisis.
Díaz-Canel described the current moment as a "war economy" and outlined five government priorities: defense of the Homeland, implementation of the 2026 economic and social program, boosting national production, attracting foreign investment, and food sovereignty.
He stated that none of those priorities can be achieved without the mobilization of workers: "Without the active participation of workers, the recently approved economic and social transformations will not achieve the results that the country desires."
The proposal is set against a backdrop of a historically significant labor crisis. According to official data, almost half of the working-age people in Sancti Spíritus are unemployed.
At the national level, more than half of Cubans of working age neither work nor seek employment, according to the National Occupation Survey from July 2025.
The average state salary stood at 6,930 pesos in 2025, equivalent to about 13 dollars at the informal exchange rate, which discourages formal employment and drives the population towards the private sector or emigration.
The initiative for community brigades overlaps with the program "My Neighborhood for the Homeland", approved by the Council of State in March, which includes a Productive Neighborhood front aimed at mobilizing the population for local tasks, and which critics describe as a strengthened mechanism of social control over communities burdened by power outages and shortages.
The new Labor Code, published in June, will come into effect 90 days after its publication in the Official Gazette, and Decree 149/2026 already regulates temporarily suspended workers, guaranteeing them 100% of their salary for the first month and 60% starting from the second month.
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