The workers of the General Teaching Hospital Doctor Ernesto Guevara, the largest health facility in Las Tunas, had their voice in the second National Conference of the Health Union, which finished sessions this February 2 in Havana.
Las Tunas, Cuba - José Mariano Vidal Alcina has a degree in Clinical Laboratory from the Dr. Zoilo Marinello University of Medical Sciences in this province, where he qualified with a Gold Degree. For 16 years he has been working in this specialty at the hospital, where he was first a financer and then secretary-general of the trade union section in that area.
Now, he represents the protagonists of an epic that defies shortages and adds his knowledge to salvation, with the same passion with which the sick seek healing and the family clings to the life of their loved ones.
In the halls, corridors, offices... of the center, there are many stories of daily heroism to be told, and the young Mariano, secretary-general of the Trade Union Bureau, now, considers it an honor to have the opportunity to "expose the feelings of our workers, both their concerns and their gratitude, always with a view to what more can we do to improve the efficiency of services in the face of the current complexities."
He confirmed that the designation of “Army in White Coats,” made by the historic leader of the Revolution, Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, "calls on us to live up to the recognition it suggests and to remain faithful to his humanist legacy and concern for the health of the people."
He firmly believes and defends his criterion that "people must always be listened to, listened to and spoken to truthfully when they have a criterion or dissatisfaction, and if the solution is in my hands, then problem solved, and if not, then the commitment to seek it and to do so, of course, to generate confidence in the collective.”
This principle governs his actions in a position that he is facing as an activist, not a professional, to attend to the 74 union sections and the 2,200 members that they bring together, a task that he has assumed for more than 18 months and that he combines with his work duties in the laboratory, including on-call duty and support for any other task.
The desire for constant improvement has been a basic premise of his existence and his trajectory validates it, "I am also a graduate of a mid-level technician in Accounting and Finance," he said, and recalled that he did social service in the Provincial Directorate of Health for four years, and "then when Medical Genetics left the "Guevara" and opened as a dependency of the budgeted health unit I served as an Economist for two years.”
"For me, being a union leader means taking on a very serious responsibility towards the members, because you have to be determined to defend their interests, organize them, call them together and guide them, and also stand up to any manifestation of indiscipline because that helps to educate the workers," he said.
All these years in this role have left their mark on Mariano's professional and human training. "I have learned a lot in this exercise that instills values such as responsibility and humility, which are traits that should characterize leaders, especially those of the union," he summarized.
