[6][7][8] In the 1930s, the Cuban labor movement declined after an unsuccessful general strike against a government headed by Carlos Mendieta who initiated a period of harsh, anti-union persecution.

The CTC was founded after the second Congreso Obrero Latinoamericano, held from 23 to 28 January 1939 in Havana and the Constituent Congress of the Confederation of Cuban Workers.

The Congress elected Lázaro Peña, a leading communist trade union activist, secretary general of the CTC.

[9][13][14] The Cuban government fundamentally changed the nature of unions in Cuba, with production standards issued in 1960, minimum output levels and collective work requirements for enterprises set and government advisory councils which dealt with worker discipline, safety and health, and working conditions established, intended to take the place of independent trade unions.

[15] Mujal, who had been a representative to the Constituent Assembly that drafted the Constitution of 1940 would later help found a group of Cuban workers in exile in the United States.

Pedro Ross Leal, then the General Secretary, described the organization as "class conscious", distinguishing them "from other international working associations."

In December 2017, the CTC's General Secretary, Ulises Guilarte de Nacimiento sent a message to the Cuban people and workers a few days from the 59th anniversary of the Revolution.

[36] He also mentioned the young workers whom he described as those who will "continue and guarantee the Revolutionary process", calling on them "to be protagonists of the work underway in the Caribbean nation".