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CTC General Secretary Meets with Members of U.S. Labor for Friendship with Cuba.

Havana, April 30 (ACN-RHC) The members of the U.S. Labor for Friendship with Cuba met with the General Secretary of the Cuban Workers Confederation, CTC, Salvador Valdes on Friday in Havana, and expressed their solidarity with the Cuban people.

The head of the group, Carl Gentile, National Representative of the American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO said “as progressive trade unionists of the U.S. Labor for Friendship with Cuba, we demand the U.S. government immediately end Washington’s economic blockade against the Cuban people and allow fair and free trade between our two countries, end all restrictions of U.S. citizens so they can travel to Cuba freely and release the Cuban Five from U.S. prisons.¨

The General Secretary of the Cuban Workers Confederation, Salvador Valdes, welcomed the U.S. union leaders on behalf of the more than 3.4 million CTC members.  He stressed that there has been an increase in the number of U.S. union members that have visited the island so far this year. Valdes said “that is a good sign; it means that the workers of the world are uniting. ”

He added that the Cuban Workers Confederation is celebrating its 73rd anniversary. Valdes pointed out that the enemies of the Revolution say that there is only one trade union in Cuba, “when in fact we have 18 branches integrated on the national level, and our objective is the construction of a new society. ”

Regarding the economic transformations, Valdes said that there is misleading information in the western media on what Cuba is currently doing in its economic transformations. “We are not changing our system, we are improving our current socialist system. It is not market economy but economy planning.”