Posts in category: Interviews

With great care and dedication, everything is possible, you just have to propose it, you have to be clear about the proposed goals and also to trust in how much you can achieve. Daurin Rodríguez Barreto is only 28 years old, and he has gone through almost all the equipment of the terminal. While he continues immersed in the inexhaustible path of learning, which he does not renounce, he shares his knowledge and in a short time he will become an instructor.

“I found out through a friendship that a course will be opened to train light equipment operators (Prime Movers), and I could see a great project in TC Mariel, with a promising future. When I arrived there was a huge line; they requested category F – the one corresponding to construction, agricultural and industrial equipment – and I had the light car category. So, I asked for a chance and I promised to take it out; in two or three weeks I did it and when they called me, I already had it.

 “My objective was the entrance to the company, no matter the kind of work they will assign me, but I wanted to be part of this group. I really need to work, to start a family, and to have a home. This is how my journey began,” says this young man from Quivicán, Mayabeque province, whom settled in Mariel land as result of the love.

After completing the course for operating Prime Movers and forklifts, he joined the empty handler container course, and the latter one was the direct access to the entrance to our center. “I managed to master it well and for me it was like the catapult for knowing the rest. I love the Side Loader-as it is also known-, I feel comfortable working on it, besides this is the equipment that I have operated more. I never get stressed even if as part of the operations there is an overflow of trucks; on the contrary I feel much better”, he adds.

Motivated in having more knowledge, the RTG crane also caught his attention. “They made me the proposal and without hesitation I said yes. It is quieter, you can breathe, as it is said”.

Then he would come to the STS, where he has remained for more than two years. “When I entered the company, the first classes were given to us on the dock. I looked around and I thought: you have to be good enough to handle one of those cranes! But I never imagined that one day I would be operator A of port equipment.

“For me it is a challenge, because it is an easy equipment. You have to know how to work it well, with dexterity, precision and security. It is complex, it has more revolutions, and it is more dangerous because of the height, the balance, the movement of the ship … It is a fast-moving equipment, in constant motion. At first it impacted me; besides its height, the number of meters of cable slowed me down a bit, knowing when to put the load on and when to remove it”, explains Daurin.

“Both the empty handler container and the STS depend on you. If you stop, the whole process stops. They are two very strong equipment. I just need to do have a training course on the RMG crane, my preparation is already planned, once I achieve it I would become an integral operator, which has been my dream since I began to travel through the different equipment.

“I have tried to be like a sponge, from what I have learned from many workers, first by observing, and then by practicing. Every equipment requires concentration. When you come to work you have to leave your problems at home, be focused and do everything as it should be done”, he points out.

Daurin has been training as an instructor for more than six months. “They make me the proposal and I love challenges. While I train other workers I learn a lot from them too… My work has made me a more responsible person. I always try to be very carefully just to avoid mistakes. Thanks to that, I have managed to achieve several goals, both personally and professionally”.

Now his five-month-old daughter Lia Samay is also his “inspiration to move on and look to the future. I take what I have and what I have achieved so much, because I know how much it means to me and to my family. Following my parents’ advice I try to do the best I can every day and to try harder and harder. I thank all the people who have helped me and taught me, guiding my path at TC Mariel”.

Yudalys is one of the women who believes in professional improvement as a way to promote knowledge.

With the boom of the Special Development Zone, the most innovative thing that people heard about was the Container Terminal, and despite of the fact that the Construction Company already existed, the port always caught my attention and I felt the need to be part of this team. I did not know the peculiarities of the sector, but I had the interest and also the desire of knowing.

This is how Yudalys Valdés Montalvo, specialist B in Port Activities, tells her first approach to our company. “I had already submitted forms in order to work at TC Mariel, when I knew that they were going to open an Expedition course, which I joined.” After 10 months they contacted her and she begins her journey in this group at the end of July 2015.

  “I started in the documentation check-in- desk of the Expedition department, at the same time I also received a gate controller training. After three months, a facilitating check-in- desk was created to solve situations that could generate a long wait and I joined this function. Later, three supervisory positions were created in the Expedition department, and I had the opportunity to occupy one of these”, she points out.

In 2016, she was proposed to be part of the Customer Service, and from that moment on she has been working there. At this moment she is immersed in a general Operations training. “I have been fulfilling this task since last July approximately; I have a plan and I am training little by little, in the different areas of our direction”, she specifies.

  “Being a woman is not a limitation to work in this industry. In fact, we have the presence of women in all the Operations spheres, except in the operation of the equipment itself. My aspiration is to continue growing professionally and gain more experience”.

She also mentions other activities carried out in the center. “Since 2016 I have worked as a secretary of my union section (Expedition and Tally), and I am also part of the Operations Expert Committee. These spaces have given me the opportunity to interact with workers from all areas, get to know them better and also know how they think”.

  Regarding his main motivations, she states that “in each job that I have gone through, I am inspired to do it well, to be able to fulfill the assigned missions. I never say no; I like to prove myself. In fact, Customer Service has been a challenge and this is what I think. On the other hand, it helps you to have a great notion of the activity of the terminal, when interacting with dissimilar areas. Serving external and internal clients, explaining to them, helping them, convincing them if necessary, instructing them many times, it’s gratifying”.