![]() Uliser Sánchez De la Torre explains the innovation made to the panels of the boilerplates of the country's sugar mills. |
“Before, the cloths were thinner and therefore less resistant to the constant fire to which they were subjected. They lasted less time, about one harvest,” recalls Uliser Sánchez De la Torre, a worker at the basic business unit (UEB in Spanish) Talleres y Desmonte Azutecnia Las Tunas (Workshops and Dismantling), where the harvest continues with actions that support the repairs in preparation for the next harvest in the country, to which this collective tribute.
"Then, he says, the technician Yoel Elías Oliva increased the thickness and now they can be used for three years and sometimes longer," Sánchez celebrates. However, he admits, "We have lost the opportunity to earn income from these almost permanent productions due to their rapid deterioration”.
And neither he nor his colleagues in the foundry area regret it, because ‘in the situation of our economy, we advocate lasting solutions, even if they entail this restriction’, he maintains with conviction, and his colleagues agree with him.
This is how he describes the fate of the sugar mills' boilerplates, a device constantly exposed to very high temperatures and whose manufacture requires resources that are not always at hand, some of which are imported.
THINKING ABOUT THE COMING HARVEST...
Alcibiades Murillo shows the brake shoes for the locomotive brakes and cage cars used in the sugar cane transfer. |
In this factory, the production process is impacted by the blackouts, frequent these days, and the limitations of some of the more than 30 inputs required, such as coking coal (imported) and the lack of fuel for the transfer of silica sand, limestone and scrap from the supplier sources, confirms Jorge Luis Soto Cutiño, head of the foundry's labor collective.
In the meantime, "we are doing what the objective conditions allow us to do," Soto Cutiño exalts and affirms that as part of the preparations for the 2024-2025 race, in the last few days, they have manufactured more than 200 of the plates for industries in Las Tunas and Cienfuegos, brake shoes for locomotive brakes and cage cars, and bearings for 3,500 harrows.
He emphasized that interruptions caused by inconveniences -blackouts, lack of fuel, and other resources- do not dampen their work ethic. Instead, they redirect their enthusiasm and drive to other areas of the UEB, which includes the early-stage food production program they are promoting in the surrounding.
THE USEFULNESS OF WASTE...
Other values that distinguish the collective are their sense of belonging and love for what they do, which are the basis for the stability of their workforce, a permanence against all odds that does not lacerate salaries that do not fully compensate for basic needs.
However, ‘we have a workforce of 17 positions and there are 16 occupied’, Soto Cutiño exalts and praises the perseverance of the group he leads and of himself, who for 20 years has shared the work in this factory with other veterans such as the foundry assistant Alcibiades Murillo (34 years) and Uliser (31 years), among others of long standing in these tasks.
The reasons can be deduced from the satisfaction with which they describe works that transcend the harvest: "The sculptures of Las Tunas' generals that are in a hall in the Plaza de la Revolución Mayor General Vicente García González and the bronze letters placed on the façade were cast here’, they assured with pride that does not fit in their chests.
They spoke with the same passion for other productions that distinguish sites in the city, such as the grilles of the city's sewage system and the iron bases of park benches; however, they regretted that, in many cases, these elements of the collective heritage have been stolen for other uses.
"It is very satisfying to work with scrap and useless objects and transform them into useful items for other purposes," said Soto Cutiño, with the agreement of his colleagues present during the discussion.
OTHER DRAWBACKS?
In addition to the shortcomings mentioned above, there are others, said the interviewees, which are somewhat subjective. In this respect, they recalled that when the Ministry of Sugar (MINAZ in Spanish) existed, a better organization assured them the scrap necessary to sustain production from the sector's entities; now, they depend a lot on self-management.
Also, they remarked, that there is a certain uncertainty about the demand that prevents them from better planning the production that they used to do continuously and by the previous requests of their clients throughout the country.