We Work for you

TRABAJAMOS Para Usted

This image is different from the printed billboard produced by the Cuban Communist Party. It is a crudely painted mural at a state-run vendor. The painted wall pronounces that the service outlet “works for us”. This double entendre means that the firm serves us (its customers) and works for us (as owners of the state firm). In a country where employees often do not have much motivation to attend to clients, this message could be attempting to counterbalance popular sentiment about the low quality of the service industry. It may also be reminding people that they themselves as citizens are owners and beneficiaries of the means of production.

The unintended message that is revealed only in this particular photograph is an ironic statement on the social indiscipline of the workforce. In the middle of the day, a crew of idle men sit under the shade of a sign that proclaims “we work for you”. Clearly, state messages can change when perceived in the social context of the signs’ “natural” environment.

Buff Dude + State Loans + Abandoned Land --> Feed Capitol's Development

"Estoy pegado a la tierra desde niño y aquí seguiré, con mi modesto aporte, para que La Habana pueda responder a los programas de desarrollo que tiene en marcha".

To experienced and capable farmers, the Cuban state is providing the use of forsaken land as well as credits for tools, fertilizer, and seed. The goal is to make efficient use of those willing and talented enough to raise a multitude of crops; to attain economies of scale instead of limiting productive agriculturalists to their original small plot, Soviet tractors, and grunting oxen.

The epigraphic farmer's quote reveals that the rural folks shall grow the crops that feed Havana, as it develops its industrial, medical, scientific, and human capital.

The metropolitan dwellers will have an outstanding debt to their rural compatriots for the foreseeable future.

Independent Labor Unions

Asia Times correspondent Pepe Escobar asserts that as foreign industry increases operations in a liberalizing Cuban economy, Cuban employees of those enterprises will need to form unions independent of--but not in opposition to--the state.

Former Teachers Unretire to Fill Posts Left Empty By Diminished Labor Force

As economic dearth renders pregnancy unappealing, deaths continue to out pace births in Cuba.

The depleted population structure is unable to reproduce the workforce to fill the positions vacated by retirees.

Add to that the fact that some Havana residents tend to opt out of formal state employment (due to official material benefits being less attractive than the informal economic opportunities derived from inputs of tourist dollars in the capitol city). Willing professionals--namely police, teachers and construction workers--must be imported from the provinces.

In order to close the deficit in teachers--which may or may not be near 8,000--new legal provisions encourage retired teachers to return to the classroom by letting them earn a salary while still receiving their monthly pension.

Defection from Employment

A major issue confronting Cuban society is how to insert its youth into the workforce. The Union of Young Communists (UJC) is actively looking into why people are "disconnected from either study or work...not contributing anything to the society."

People report to be dissatisfied with the jobs on offer, frustrated at not qualifying to enter academically into their preferred career path, busy earning money in the informal sector, or just plain lazy or allergic to labor.

The consequence of idle bodies, besides the obvious afflictions like crime and political unrest common to any society with restless youth, is that many strategic positions that feed the social good go unfilled.