Add the Cuban Revolution to the list of victims of the worldwide financial crisis. With Cuba on the verge of economic and social disaster, its government announced that more than half a million state workers will be cast adrift to fend for themselves by March 2011. The “Cuban model” was said by Fidel Castro a 7 days before the announcement to not be working anymore to Jeffery Goldberg, Atlantic press reporter. Numerous think just laying off government workers will not solve Cuba’s, as the very last communist system left within the world, problems.
Workers left along by Cuban communist party
More than half a million Cuban public sector workers will soon be laid off by the government. The government hopes the economy will grow with this change. In theory, private businesses should pick up the workers the government is losing. Cuba is not prepared with its government to deal with the changes brought on by the international financial crisis, says the New York Times. It is also recovering from the 2008 hurricanes that came via still. Citizens have rice shortages while sugar crops failed and there is no more tourism. In a statement Monday, Cuban Workers’ Central admitted the nation’s economy was in the toilet and that radical changes must be implemented quickly.
Good luck, slackers
The Cuban layoffs will initially focus on overpaid, unproductive and undisciplined workers, according to an internal Cuban Communist Party document obtained by the Associated Press. Any workers at Cuba’s ministries of sugar, public health, tourism and agriculture are in danger of losing jobs. Those are the first to go. Fired workers could be encouraged by Cuban Workers’ Central to form private cooperatives. The government will also try to foist others onto foreign-run corporations and joint ventures. Little experience, low skill levels and a lack of initiative could be the three things Cubans could have the hardest time with while working on their own.
Why would Cuba believe this to be the solution?
There is one large concern Cuban experts nevertheless have. This concern is that fired government workers will not actually be absorbed by the private sector. Jaime Suchlicki told the Wall Street Journal there will be nowhere else for fired workers to go. Suchlicki is the director of the Institute for Cuban Studies at the University of Miami. “They definitely won’t be absorbed by the private sector because there is no private sector to absorb them,” he said. It would be for Cubans to actually start a business also considering the government regulations, bans on advertising, high taxes, lack of credit and lack of foreign exchange. To help, the government made a list of “authorized” activities for self employment, including toy repairman, music teacher, piñata salesman and carpenter.
Further reading
New York Times
nytimes.com/2010/09/14/world/americas/14cuba.html?_r=1 and hp
Associated Press
google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ipe0no99xWr_oUrAP-q6PnKLj8XgD9I7O0BO0
Wall Street Journal
online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704190704575489932181245938.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTTopStories
