The decision was approved in line with Raúl’s policy of eliminating subsidies, but now, in the midst of the current crisis, it is creating a hard time for employees.
14ymedio, Madrid, 28 July 2025 — More than 15 years ago, 85% of Cuban workers did what was expected of them: they ratified the proposal from above to eliminate the workers’ cafeterias. The idea, framed within Raúl Castro’s plan to eliminate subsidies, included a compensation measure that seemed very convincing to the employees at the time: they would receive a “stipend” of 15 pesos a day in return, which could double their salary.
At the time, a worker told the Associated Press, “For me, it’s much better if they give me the money and I manage. I don’t eat what they give me now; it’s awful, and I bring my lunch from home.” The older workers viewed the measure with skepticism, “but it will be good for the country,” the man said. Nothing could be further from the truth. During the time of the Ordering Task, these payments were required to be limited to no more than 18 pesos, while the price of meals only increased, and today the situation has deteriorated so much that the Special Period brings back fond memories.
“This is an issue that the unions need to revive. This was achieved during the toughest years of the Special Period, thanks to the initiatives of cooks, assistants, and employers,” says Roberto Betharte Mazorra, head of the Labor Affairs Department of the Cuban Workers’ Central Union—the only legal union in Cuba—who blames the situation on the organization of which he is a leader. This Monday, the newspaper Trabajadores published a report reviewing the state of the workers’ cafeterias and their precarious operation in the places where they have been maintained.
“This is an issue that the unions must revive. During the toughest years of the Special Period, this was achieved thanks to the initiatives of cooks, assistants, and employers.”
Among the reported cases, one of the most notable is that of the Special Workshop for People with Disabilities in Holguín, which maintains its service more in theory than in practice. Nelvis Pérez Rodríguez and Maylén Batista Almira—the center’s manager and cook—claim that they have lost their status as a protected sector and reveal that since February, they have not received rice or peas, there is only sugar to make tea, they have no cooking gas, and the electrical appliances they could use to cook in—if the blackout allowed—are in very poor condition.
In Matanzas, contracts with MSMEs (private businesses), the self-employed, and some state-owned meat and vegetable companies are keeping 22 soup kitchens and 43 distribution points open, feeding employees of the Ministry of Energy and Mines. According to the provincial Director of Economy and Planning, Gilberto Castel, the priority of these “allocations” is for childcare centers, hospitals, nursing and maternity homes, and hospitalized children and residential education centers. The rest must make do “with local, indigenous production and thus compensate for the shortage of rice, grains, and cooking oil,” the official urges.
This is why the director of the company that feeds energy sector employees, Inti Tabares López, has even traveled to Camagüey himself to buy rice. “I need eight sacks a day, and the Wholesale Food Products Company hasn’t supplied anything for over a year, while the Oil Services company, to which we belong, provides us with some soft drinks, sometimes meat and grains, and we are consistent with our responsibility to guarantee four to five meals a day. Our workers deserve the best,” he laments to the official weekly.
Workers and union leaders claim that the credit for these employees—including those working on the recovery of the Supertanker Base, which was burned in 2022—being among the few who eat well in Cuba is due to Tabares himself, thanks to his strategy. “The workers eat very well here; they are offered two main courses… the service is of high quality, and the charge is only 18 pesos, despite the high cost of the menu. The company covers the rest,” they explain.
That is why the director of the company that feeds employees in the energy sector, Inti Tabares López, has personally traveled to Camagüey to buy rice.
The same thing happens at the Cuban Medical Equipment Company in Havana, where they generate enough profit to cover the cost of the cafeteria. “For a meal that costs around 200 pesos, the worker pays 18,” they explain. Although such cases are not common.
At Antillana de Acero, the industry revived with Russian collaboration, the cafeteria is functioning, but complaints abound. Trabajadores complains that the food is repetitive: rice and minced meat. More serious, however, is what one of the employees interviewed reveals: no one wants to use the broken and dirty plastic plates they distribute, and the workers bring their own dishes.
Michel Cabrera Madrazo, general secretary of the company’s union bureau, states that the quality of the food is questioned at every meeting, but the director of the factory that produces it—located in the factory itself and serving six others—stands by her words. “We never go below three courses; the snacks remain stable, although the soft drinks have fluctuated slightly. Based on suggestions from members of the contingents, who are working on the structural improvements of the facility, they have been offered optional food, and workers who choose to eat it pay directly,” she maintains.
The official unexpectedly reveals a detail that, despite the country’s dire state, is still surprising. Inputs are expensive, and her efforts are aimed at ensuring that the company, “which is going through a difficult economic situation because it is not producing,” does not exceed its budget. Antillana de Acero, located in Havana, reopened in 2023 thanks to a multimillion-dollar Russian investment —an initial $111 million—and its inauguration received significant coverage in the official press, which highlighted its potential to employ more than 500 people and produce “between 220,000 and 230,000 tons of liquid steel annually.” There were warnings at the time that the factory would not be fully operational until 2024, but statements by Tania Caridad Rodríguez Tellería indicate total inactivity.
The inputs are expensive and their efforts are aimed at ensuring that the budget allocated by the company, “which is going through a complex economic situation because it is not producing,” is not exceeded.
“When many gave up and removed the cafeteria, it remained in Antillana despite everything,” says a union leader from the center. According to Trabajadores, the majority of companies that decided to maintain the workers’ cafeterias—despite the high costs and complaints—were industrial and nickel companies, while others eliminated them, to the chagrin of their current employees.
“It gave me something hot to eat,” says one worker who voted in favor of the newspaper’s elimination. “After the Ordering Task, my workplace cut off food payments, and we had to bring lunch from home. To that expense, I have to add the transportation to my center, and the math just doesn’t add up,” laments another. Norquides Guerra Montoya, a mechanic who voted against, remains in his position even though it’s useless.
“At the bucket factory in our sector, they complained and they brought it back. Why isn’t the same thing happening here? We’d be better off not having to go out and see what we could find, with everything being so expensive. What if I raised it with the union? Of course, and nothing gets resolved. Nothing.”
Roberto Betharte Mazorra says the intention was never to eliminate cafeterias, “but rather to eradicate subsidies, relieve the State of all free services,” and encourage companies to create gardens, self-consumption measures, and other options. “In the case of global organizations, the State assumed a stipend that, after the regulation, appeared to be included in salaries. It is no less true that, given current conditions and the prevailing speculative prices, this tends to be a permanent demand…” he adds.
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