Workplace theft saps Cuba's state-run economy

Workplace theft saps Cuba's state-run economy
Reuters
By Tom Brown Tom Brown – Thu Jun 25, 12:31 pm ET

HAVANA (Reuters) – In a cramped apartment just behind the renowned
Partagas cigar factory in central Havana, the factory worker displayed
his wares.

Shiny wooden boxes of Cohiba, Montecristo and Partagas cigars --
considered among the finest in the world -- emerged from a duffel bag as
the worker, who gave his name as Jose but asked not to be identified
further, offered them at a steep discount to those on sale in the
Partagas store.

"This isn't stealing. We do it to survive," said Jose, who explained
that his wage in the factory amounted to less than $20 a month. Without
slipping cigars out of the state-run business and selling them to
tourists, he and his family would not get by, Jose said.

Cuba's communist authorities take a dim view of such "survival" tactics,
which have existed for years in some form or other in a society whose
citizens often wryly joke "if it's not illegal, it's prohibited."

A popular Sunday night drama on state television highlights the crimes
and punishment -- including long jail terms -- meted out to Cubans
responsible for "counterrevolutionary" acts such as black market sales
of goods, such as beef, cigars and rum.

"I could get in a lot of trouble just for talking to you ... I could go
to prison," said the Partagas worker.

He and three fellow workers reaped just 20 percent of the revenues from
the "bolsa negra" or black market deals, Jose said. Plant managers and
foremen keep the other 80 percent and split it among themselves and
police or Interior Ministry officials who turn a blind eye to the
illicit sales, he said.

Former President Fidel Castro complained bitterly about theft from the
workplace in a speech in November 2005. But he fell ill not long after
that, and little seems to have been done about a problem so commonplace
that Castro described it as having created a class of "nuevos ricos" or
new rich which he said threatened the very lifeblood of the Cuban
Revolution.

The government routinely blames many of Cuba's economic problems on the
U.S. trade embargo against the island that which has been in place since
1962.

"ESCAPE VALVE"

But the problem of theft from state-owned businesses is an embarrassment
for a government that has long prided itself on socialist egalitarianism
and a sense of ethical superiority.

President Raul Castro, who took over from his ailing elder brother Fidel
last year, has called for more efficiency, austerity and sacrifice as
the global recession squeezes the centralized Cuban economy with dips in
foreign currency earners such as tourism and nickel.

Nevertheless, many Cubans see themselves as victims of a flawed economy
and say workplace theft is one of the things still keeping the Cuban
Revolution alive.

"It's sort of our escape valve," said one taxi driver, who asked not to
be named. "If they were to take that away people could get pretty angry
and things might get out of hand."

Dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez, whose wry comments about daily life in
Cuba have won her international acclaim, described pilfering from the
workplace as "a socially accepted way of breaking the law" in a website
posting this week.

It was also a way of dissuading people from protesting publicly to
demand better living standards, she said.

DUAL CURRENCY STRAINS SOCIETY

Many Cuba experts say the widespread theft problem stems largely from
the fact that Cuba, which initially legalized use of dollars in 1993
during the economic nosedive that followed the collapse of its old
economic ally the Soviet Union, has two currencies.

The local peso currency, which most salaries like Jose's are paid in, is
essentially good only for rationed or other items available in drab
state-run peso stores.

The government replaced dollar circulation in 2004 with convertible,
dollar-pegged pesos called CUCs. Having CUCs provides access to better
stores and more goods, and getting them is often through black market
sales of goods smuggled out of the workplace.

Hard-currency remittances from family members living abroad are another
major source of the CUCs for many Cubans. But some critics have called
the dual currency system a form of economic apartheid in the country of
11 million people.

The state still provides free health and education as well as heavily
subsidized housing and a small ration of almost-free food items. So the
social safety net compensates partially for what officials acknowledge
to be low salaries in dollar terms.

But many peso-paid workers or people on pensions have a hard time
meeting basic needs, and the solution for many is daily "inventing" --
often just a euphemism for stealing.

(Editing by Pascal Fletcher and Frances Kerry)
Workplace theft saps Cuba's state-run economy - Yahoo! News (25 June 2009)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090625/lf_nm_life/us_economy_cuba_theft_1