-DATE-
19871202
-YEAR-
1987
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
INTERVIEW
-AUTHOR-
F. CASTRO
-HEADLINE-
HIGHLIGHTS OF HAVANA PCC ASSESSMENT MEETING
-PLACE-
PALACE OF CONVENTIONS IN HAVANA
-SOURCE-
HAVANA TELEVISION CUBANA
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS
-REPORT_DATE-
19871211
-TEXT-
Highlights of Havana PCC Assessment Meeting

FL101418 Havana Television Cubana Network in Spanish 0204 GMT 2 Dec 87

["Highlights" of the Havana Province PCC assessment meeting presided over
by Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, president of the Councils of State
and Ministers, held at the Palace of Conventions in Havana on 27-29
November; delegates identified by caption--recorded]

[Excerpts] [Rosana Ross] Commander, I think the first thing I should say is
that your presence at that factory [not further identified] was a great
encouragement for us.  We were in a state of total disorganization at the
factory.  Workers, whom we will describe as honest, would tell us: Comrade,
we came in every morning and punched our cards but, since there was no one
to check on us, and since we were doing nothing, we would just leave.  We
were happy to come in and get our pay every 2 weeks or every month.  There
was no concern for production; there was no concern whatsoever. [passage
omitted]

Commander, today we can say that even though we are not totally satisfied,
because we still have much to do, we feel we are walking down the right
path.  We have stabilized our production and have guaranteed the supply of
the main products necessary for construction.  For example, in 1986 we
produced 4,944,000 units, and in 1987 we have already produced 7,234,000
units.

[Castro] How much did you produce in 1986?

[Ross] In units or value?

[Castro] Value.

[Ross] We produced 4,944,000 units.

[Castro] How many units will you produce in 1987?

[Ross] We will produce 8 million.

[Castro] And next year?

[Ross] We will produce 16 million.

[Castro] You are going to produce 16 million units with half your usual
number of workers?

[Ross] With half the number of workers.

[Castro] And you will produce a good quality product?

[Ross] A good quality product.

[Castro] With a very low percentage of damaged products?

I understand that you received an award at the fair.

[Ross] Yes.

[Castro] You have said nothing about this.

[Speaker] They got two awards.

[Castro] You received two awards during the International Fair.

[Ross] We received two awards during the International Fair held in Havana.
We received the Iberian-American Award presented by the International
Chamber of Representatives, and we also received a gold medal for the
excellent quality of our enamel products, for all the products we had on
exhibit, for our honesty, good work, and discipline.  All this is reviewed
prior to presenting an award.

[Castro] And you are planning to export 2 million [not further specified]
next year.

[Ross] Yes, we are planning to export 2 million.

[Castro] Do you think you will be able to satisfy the demand there is for
these products?  I don't think you will be able to do this in a year.
There is much demand for your products.  What you produce is necessary for
our construction plan.  If we don't have these products we have to import
them, and we don't have what we need to import them.  So we have the
factory to produce these products.

How long did it take you to make all these changes?

[Ross] It took us 10 months, Commander. [passage omitted]

[Castro] Is the director of the shipyard here today?

[Speaker] Yes, he is here.

[Castro] Where is he?  I would like to ask him some questions.

[Abdias Peon] Yes, Commander, Abdias Peon, director of the shipyard.

[Castro] You have not let me ask my question.  Are you new on the job?

[Peon] I was appointed to head the enterprise in January, but you can ask
me all you want. [laughter]

[Castro] What did he say?

[Speaker] That you can ask him all you want.

[Castro] That's good.  The secretary of the party says that you have more
authority than the former administration.

[Peon] Yes, and this is the result of the rectification process.  The
political, mass, and administration sector have achieved a work unity that
did not exist in the past In the past they had different opinions, mistaken
opinions that were either corrected or improved after the comrades became
involved in the rectification process.  As a result of this rectification
process, all the workers from the top to the bottom, are now transmitting
on the same frequencies; our ideas and policies are the same.

[Castro] How has the party contributed to increasing the authority of the
administration in that area?

[Peon] With its direct support expressed during our assemblies and before
the council of directors; by promoting good workers; by supporting our
political work at the production assemblies; and by directing our party
leaders.  The party has helped us resolve our problems and determine which
are social, administrative, or ideological problems.  It has helped us
direct our actions to achieve a specific objective.

[Castro] Right.  I am going to ask another question.  How much did you
produce in 1986?

[Peon] In 1986 we produced 18 million [not further specified].

[Castro] How much do you plan to produce this year?

[Peon] This year we plan to produce 21.4 [million].

[Castro] And how much do you plan to produce next year?

[Peon] We plan to produce 21.8 [million].

[Castro] You also had to confront the problem of a chaotic wage system
implemented previously and which was not in accord with your production.
This resulted in very high wages; I think some workers were being paid
1,000 pesos.

[Peon] yes.

[Castro] We were talking of an average wage, but some were getting very
high wages.  Don't think it is easy to correct this kind of problem.  But
the fact that our workers reacted the way they did, and responded the way
they did, is proof of the kind of workers we have and the fact that we were
the ones who were hurting them; we were the ones who were corrupting them.
We were getting them accustomed to these alien pay systems.  Today we are
applying the socialist formula at this center.

[Peon] Yes, we are, and we are working on this.

[Castro] The socialist pay system is now being implemented.

[Peon] We are explaining this to the workers, and they understand.

[Castro] The saying that a tree that grew twisted... [changes thought] You
had to straighten something that had grown twisted; the same has happened
in many other places.  However, your area was one of the most problematic
and conflictive.  I asked Lezcano to study the centers with the most
problems.  We were having serious problems at the Enrique Barahona,
Vanguardia Socialista, and I believe we also had some serious problems at
the (Ulyanov) railroad shops.  We had to study all the problems at those
centers to learn what brought them on, what measures had been taken, how
the party was working, how the administration was working, and what we were
doing to resolve those problems. [passage omitted]

[Amaldo Perez] Comrade Lezcano and Comrade Fidel as you already know, our
factory is carrying out a plan to recover the work attitude that was lost.
This is being done through meetings to analyze all the problem confronted
by the production shops.

Regarding our production plan, we are working on a new line of products, if
you wish to describe it as a new line, that are truly necessary.  As we
explained during the meeting with the enterprises, we are not producing
value.

[Castro] In value you are producing more than last year.

[Perez] Our production in value will be almost the same as last year.  Last
year we produced 12.4 million pesos, but during the meeting with the
enterprises I explained to you that of that 12.4 million pesos, 2.7 million
pesos were for services rendered.  For example, when we assembled the
(?trough), we would buy parts, add them to the parts we produced, and sell
them at another price.  Today, the railroad (?trough) that we produce is
worth 4,500 pesos.  In the past, we bought parts, added them to our parts,
and sold the finished product for 11,600 pesos.  That is why we say that in
1986 the factory only produced parts in the amount of 9.7 million pesos.

[Castro] And you are now producing 12 million pesos in pans?

[Perez] In parts.

[Castro] Right.

What can you tell us about the variety of products produced last year and
the variety of products produced this year?

[Perez] It is difficult to speak of last year's variety because no record
was kept of this.  Records were kept of tons of parts produced, but not of
the different products they were producing.

[Castro] They recorded production by the ton and not by the unit?

[Perez] Well, they recorded the units but they did this in an overall
manner, not the way we are doing it this year.  This year we are keeping a
record according to the units we supply to each of our buyers.  We supply
each buyer with the established number of parts, and these are the records
we keep.  At the time of the meeting with the enterprises I mentioned that
we had 43 buyers; today we have 45 buyers.  We keep a record of each part
sold to each of them.  However, this record is not kept according to the
amount of the sale, but per unit supplied.

[Castro] I see.

What about the problems involving attention to the worker and the old
installations?  How are you going to resolve this?

[Perez] That is a bit more complicated.  The factory needs a lot of
maintenance.  We are currently doing this, especially at the foundry.  We
are repairing all the equipment we can.  In mid 1988 we are planning to
halt production for 45 days at our No 3 workshop so that extensive
maintenance work can be done.  The sand system at this work shop is giving
us many problems and much work has to be done here.  The problems at this
shop affect its production.

[Castro] Are you going to halt production at that shop or throughout the
factory?

[Perez] No, only that shop.

We are also having lots of problems with our moving vehicle parts plant.
This plant has faced many problems.  We have not been able to exploit this
plant efficiently.

[Castro] Why?

[Perez] For several reasons: fluctuating manpower; and the fact that many
times we don't have the spare parts we need to repair the equipment.  These
spare parts come from the...

[Castro, interrupting] Spare parts from where?

[Perez] The capitalist area.

[Castro] Are these spare parts for the machines?

[Perez] Yes.

[Castro] What is your current spare part deficit?

[Perez] I did not understand your question.

[Castro] What is your deficit?  What do you need to perform maintenance on
the equipment?

[Perez] After attending several meetings and analyzing the bids presented,
we have found that we will need $1 million...

[Castro, interrupting] How much?

[Perez] We need $1 million for the moving vehicle parts plant.  At this
moment we have $440,000, but we still need approximately $600,000 in order
to repair the whole plant.

[Castro] How much is that plant currently producing?

[Perez] The plant is currently producing approximately 2.8 million pesos.

[Castro] How much could it produce if it were fully operational?

[Perez] Fully operational?  That plant should produce somewhere between $5
million and $6 million, excuse me, pesos, but if we consider what we are
importing...

[Castro, interrupting] Yes, I understand.  What do you make at the moving
vehicle parts plant?

[Perez] We make chains, links; we are producing the chains and components
for the Komatsu bulldozers and the rice harvesting machines.

[Castro] Have you ever exported your products?

[Perez] In the beginning we were exporting some products, but currently we
are not exporting.  One of the problems that affects our exports is the
quality of the product.

[Castro] If you could export some of those products you could purchase your
own spare parts.

[Delegate] Commander, last year, before we began to make changes, we were
producing approximately 13,200 meters of material a day.  We are currently
producing between 15,500 and 16,000 meters a day.  We are producing more.

[Castro] However, there was a time when you were producing even more.

[Delegate] Yes, Commander, but we have had some problems and, I think you
know about this.  Comrade Jaime [not further identified] and Comrade
Lezcano visited the factory recently and we explained this problem to them.

As you know, we decided to produce in 6 hours what we were producing in 8
hours.  We followed the same guide lines and we even increased the
workload.  Each comrade was responsible for four looms; we made each
comrade responsible for six looms.  We reduced the number of working hours
by 25 percent and, from one day to the next, we saw that the amount of work
done had increased, also by approximately 25 percent.  The workers have
increased production by 18 percent, and the year's goals are being
fulfilled by 93.2 percent.

I recall that during your visit to the factory you said it was important
that we protect the worker's wages.  We have studied this and we find that
there are still some comrades who are affected because they have not met
their goals.  We have studied this situation, based on the experience of
the Ariguanabo and Alquizar factories, and we have worked the problem out
in such a way that the worker's wages are not affected.  This situation was
resolved last month, and those workers are now fulfilling their goal.

We don't feel that our 6-hour experience has been fully exploited...

[Castro, interrupting] What a pity that this year was a dry one.

[Delegate] Dry year?

[Castro] Yes.  The year you produced the largest number of towels has been
a dry one. [laughter]

[Delegate] But we are now getting some rain, and that makes us happy.

[Castro] Good.

I have been told that this year you produced almost 5,000 tons.

[Delegate] Our textile factory will finish the year with... [changes
thought] Our factory had set itself a 5,900-ton goal.  However, as I
explained earlier, Commander, we were a bit too optimistic and we did not
have enough experience.  We realized that the country needed our product,
so we accepted a 74-percent growth goal.  How ever, today we realize that
it was too much in view of the manpower we had.

[Castro] Yes.  Are you planning to produce 6,200 tons next year?

[Delegate] Well, we are talking this over with the ministry and the trade
union.  We are planning to produce 6,200 tons, which represents a 26- or
27-percent growth.

[Castro] This is what you have proposed?

[Delegate] Yes, this is what we have proposed.

[Castro] Then when are you going to reach 15,000 tons in production?

[Delegate] That depends on the thread we use.  The thread we are working
with today is much thinner.  Therefore, although we would be able to
produce 15,000 tons, we would be producing 13,600 tons.

[Castro] This means that you are still far from reaching your total
production capacity.

[Delegate] Yes, we are still far from this.  If our proposed plan is
accepted we will be producing approximately 50 percent of the expected
production.

[Castro] That would be next year, 1988?

[Delegate] In 1988.

[Jorge Lezcano] The capital city's leading enterprise, Antillana de Acero,
has the floor.  Comrade Yeyo Rogelio Lopez will now speak.

[Lopez] Everyone knows that Antillana de Acero is currently producing at
its maximum capacity and that it has been covering the demands of the
capital city and the rest of the country.  Antillana de Acero's goal was to
produce 350,000 tons of steel and, in 1987, it has already produced 400,000
tons.

Our steel billet production goal is 350,000 tons.  The most the enterprise
has ever produced has been 341,000 tons.

[Castro] Yeyo, what was this you were saying that the party, and everyone
else, visits the enterprise after 2300?  How many times a week is this
done?

[Lopez] We, the instructors, visit the enterprise twice a week.

[Castro] How many hours do you work?

[Lopez] We get there at 1700, after working hours, and stay until 2300.
There are other days when we meet with the labor leaders, which is the way
we have to strengthen our ties with all the workers.  It could be that some
of these workers are on their day off or are in the middle of a shift
change.  But that is not the problem.  The problem is that they are
demanding that we participate in the construction of the social works.
That is the problem.

[Castro] The workers are making those demands?

[Lopez] The workers are demanding that I work...

[Castro, interrupting] This means that if you have the material you need
you can do what you please there?

[Lopez] Yes.  We have the material, we prepare the plans, we prepare this
and that.  We...

[Castro, interrupting] Does this mean that you have more manpower than you
need?

[Lopez] No, I don't think so. [laughter]

[Castro] Come again? [laughter]

Who is building the polyclinic?

[Lopez] One of our brigades with the support of the ECOI [Industrial
Projects Construction Enterprise] 3 brigade.

[Castro] Did you mention the polyclinic.

[Lopez] What?

[Castro] You did not mention the polyclinic.

[Lopez] We do have a polyclinic; we are working...

[Castro, interrupting] When will it be completed?

[Lopez] It should be completed some time during the first 3 months of 1988.

[Castro] Is working on the polyclinic harder than working on a day-care
center? Is it twice as much work?

[Lopez] Yes, I think so. I think the polyclinic...

[Castro, interrupting] How many square meters?

[Lopez] Its geographic position is very different. [laughter]

[Castro] Oh, boy, a different position. [laughter] How many meters?

[Speaker] More than 2,000 [square] meters.

[Lopez] Oh, I thought you were talking about something else. [laughter]

[Castro] Yeyo, once this construction project is completed you will know
more about construction than steel.

[Lopez] No. At this moment...

[Castro, interrupting] You are an overall enterprise.  You produce
treenails and you use them in your construction.  You produce treenails and
distribute them in the form of day-care centers and family doctor
home-offices [laughs] with the doctors already living there.

That's fine.  That is a very important industry.  We must maintain the
workers' spirit and morale.  We don't want problems to come up there.  That
won't happen, will it?

[Lopez] Commander, I believe that when the party is right in the middle of
everything problems won't arise.

[Castro] And the party giving the example, being the first at everything.

[Lopez] I am the first one to put my gloves on.
-END-