Add the Cuban Revolution to the list of victims of the worldwide financial crisis. Many individuals were mad to find out Cuba’s government plans to lay off over half one million workers by March 2011. This won’t help Cuba’s economic and social state which is pretty bad already. Atlantic reporter Jeffery Goldberg talked to Castro a week before the announcement was made. In the conversation, Castro said the “Cuban model” does not work anymore for Cuba. Numerous think just laying off government workers won’t solve Cuba’s, as the last communist system left in the world, issues.
Workers left along by Cuban communist party
The Cuban government has made a plan it intends to keep. In this plan, more than half a million public sector workers could be out of a job. The government hopes the economy will grow with this change. In theory, private corporations should pick up the workers the government is losing. The NY Times reports that Cuba’s communist system lacks the resiliency to deal with the aftermath of the international financial crisis and a parade of devastating hurricanes in 2008. Citizens have rice shortages while sugar crops failed and there is no more tourism. Monday, Cuban Workers’ Central made a statement. This statement agreed that these changes need to happen as quickly as possible as the economy within the country is really bad right now.
Slackers are the reason for change
The Associated Press got an internal Cuban Communist Party document that said overpaid, unproductive and undisciplined workers will mostly be the ones targeted in Cuban layoffs. The first to be let go will be workers at Cuba’s ministries of public health, tourism, agriculture and sugar. Forming private businesses is what fired workers should do. They are encouraged to implement it by the Cuban Workers’ Central. The government will be doing what it can to help this. It will do this by getting rid of foreign-run businesses and joint ventures. The document lists the primary challenges for laid off Cubans forced to make it on their own as little experience, low skill levels and a lack of initiative.
Cuba has got to be kidding
Cuban experts are skeptical about the private sector’s ability to absorb fired government workers. Jaime Suchlicki told the Wall Street Journal there could 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. Some of the choices these Cubans have for employment at carpenter, music teacher, piñata salesman and tor repairman. These were all on a list the government put out of “authorized” employment.
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
