Nicosia, 5 March 2023. The capital of Cyprus hosted the Presidential Council of the World Federation of Trade Unions on 3 and 4 March, and Cuba was represented by Ernesto Freire, coordinator of the trade union organisation for Latin America and special envoy of the Cuban Workers' Confederation (CTC).
The World Federation of Trade Unions, founded on 3 October 1945, just after the end of the Second World War, brings together more than 105 million workers around the world to fight for social justice and progress, emancipation, respect for the dignity of workers and their families and for peace. It is an organisation whose history has been marked by its constant struggles against colonialism, apartheid, imperialism, social exclusion, and against all racial, gender and social discrimination.
During his Presidential Council, the Cuban delegate Ernesto Freire conveyed greetings from the Secretary General of the Central de Trabajadores de Cuba, Ulises Guilarte de Nacimiento, and extended an official invitation to the more than 70 participants in the meeting to take part in the May Day celebrations on the Caribbean island.
In his speech, the Cuban delegate emphasised the need to achieve the necessary synergies between the different structures of the World Federation of Trade Unions and the Coordinating Committees at grassroots level to achieve activism and presence of the trade union organisation. In view of the 78th anniversary of the Federation, he called on all those present to keep faith in victory and, with their own efforts, to continue together to defend what has been achieved.
The Presidential Council was led by the General Secretary of the World Federation of Trade Unions, the Cypriot Pambis Kyritsis. It was also attended by Soutiroullas Charallambous, General Secretary of the Pan Cypriot Federation of Labour; Michalis Papanicolaou, General Secretary of the International Trade Union of Building, Wood, Building Materials and Allied Industries (UITBB) and 50 delegates from 32 countries who constitute the collective leadership of the World Federation of Trade Unions and represent its 105 million workers.
At the end of the meeting, a series of declarations were adopted in support of the causes of different countries, including one condemning the unjust and inhumane blockade imposed by the USA against the people of the largest Caribbean island for more than 60 years (EmbaCuba Cyprus).