The XXII Congress of the Cuban Workers' Central Union (CTC) begins today in Havana, connected by videoconference to all provinces of the country in sessions marked by the island's complex context.

Precisely, current conditions impose that the final days of the gathering, on June 26 and 27, be conducted in a streamlined, austere, and rational manner — reflecting the circumstances and challenges of the moment — but with important decisions for the present and future of the Caribbean nation's working class.

The meeting, convened under the motto "For Cuba, we create together," will address national defense, along with proposals to help boost production and Cuban enterprises. Priority will be given to analysis of the Government Program, especially the 176 recently approved economic and social transformation measures.

For their implementation, the preparation and participation of workers and their union leadership in administrative decisions will be essential, as will monitoring of enterprises with economic losses.

The workers' congress will take into account affiliates' concerns regarding wages, the deterioration of purchasing power due to high prices, and other topics. The proactive and protagonistic role of union organizations in work collectives toward the community will also be a topic of analysis.

These concluding sessions will be characterized by firmness in the face of threats of military aggression, the intensification of the blockade through two executive orders, another group of hostile measures, and a terrible energy siege by the U.S. government.

The Congress arrives just as Cuba is living through very hard, tense, suffocating times with shortages of all kinds — but lamenting or surrendering has never been this people's history, members of the Organizing Committee of the XXII CTC Congress, chaired by Osnay Colina, have stated.

In the run-up to the congress, during an International Virtual Forum from Havana on Wednesday, June 24, labor leaders and union organizations from around the world expressed their solidarity and reaffirmed that Cuba is not alone.

The final days of the XXII CTC Congress on June 26 and 27 follow a process that began in January 2024 from the grassroots of the union movement, continuing with conferences of the 15 national unions and the National Association of Innovators and Rationalizers (ANIR).