HAVANA (AP) — Cuba says it will fire at least half a million state workers by mid-2011 and will free up private enterprise to help them find new work — radically remaking employment on the communist island.
The layoffs will start immediately and run through the first half of next year, according to an announcement Monday by the nearly 3 million-strong Cuban Workers Confederation — the only labor union the government tolerates.
To soften the blow, it said the government would authorize simultaneous increases in job opportunities in the non-state sector, allowing more Cubans to become self-employed, to form cooperatives run by employees rather than government bureaucrats and to increase private control of state land and infrastructure through long-term leases.
Submitting your tip... please wait!
Comments (67)
jds7171
Posted on September 13, 2010 at 6:05pmCuba is just going to nationalize everything once their economy turns around and once people start making to much money. Its what they do.
Report Post »faktchekr
Posted on September 13, 2010 at 5:36pmwhere’s that smarmy dinglebags? No comment eh dinglebags? You missed this article because you had to get out of the basement and into the sun to get some vitamin D, right? Is that why you didn’t get to this article quick enough? Your absence speak volumes…
Report Post »Bril
Posted on September 13, 2010 at 5:35pmYou may see Cuban’s getting back on a boat to return to Cuba. Florida is going to be a ghost state!
Report Post »faktchekr
Posted on September 13, 2010 at 5:32pmha, ha…I can barely contain myself! So lemmie get this straight, socialism/communism can’t work on a po-dunk, tin pot Island with a population the size of 1 city in the US, but the moron lefties think it will actually work in a country with a population 350 million! This is spectacular…the “educated elite” who have never stepped foot out of academia and have never actually created a single dollar of wealth, are telling the rest of us that this will work?! Oh man…my stomach is killing me…
Report Post »chiquelitz
Posted on September 13, 2010 at 5:25pmI don’t want to sound paranoid…but what is Castro up to? This is supposedly a great opportunity for Cuban Americans to return to their country to reinstate freedom of speech, private property, etc., but what exactly will Fidel have waiting for them? This man has hated capitalism for over 50 yrs, and murdered and tortured thousands and thousands of people in his quest. Suddenly he‘s all mushy about what he’s done to gays, and that communism doesn’t work. Call me a cynic, but is this hater of America simply trying to get the U.S. to infuse OUR MONEY into Cuba in order to jump start their sagging economy. Our flailing State Dept. hasn’t got a clue, th/ we know. Tread softly into this Black Widow’s Web.
Report Post »dollfin
Posted on September 13, 2010 at 6:21pmHere, here o-wise-one!
Report Post »yongo
Posted on September 13, 2010 at 9:37pmPerhaps he’s seen the light?
Report Post »stonebrash
Posted on September 13, 2010 at 10:42pmNext thing we know Castro will be asking POTUS for help and some of that good American $ .
Report Post »02NOV2010
Posted on September 13, 2010 at 5:12pmThe fact that there are 500,000 government jobs in Cuba speaks volumes.
Report Post »JJMinor
Posted on September 13, 2010 at 5:07pmMaybe Comrade Obama should take notes. His Father’s Dream is all about Fail.
Report Post »redneck
Posted on September 13, 2010 at 4:46pmWhat was the message that turned the light on Cuba? Now they fix them old Chevy’s!
Report Post »GeorgiaPeach
Posted on September 13, 2010 at 4:36pmDark forces?
Report Post »dorothea
Posted on September 13, 2010 at 4:34pmThe bloody Comunist regime is DROWNING however, I still have to see it to beleive it!!!!
Report Post »IndianaJeff
Posted on September 13, 2010 at 4:34pmAre pigs flying somewhere????
Report Post »Joseph
Posted on September 13, 2010 at 7:43pmOut of Castro’s Butt!
Report Post »El Paco
Posted on September 13, 2010 at 4:28pmwait, 500,000… isn’t that the entire population of Cuba?? :P
Report Post »DRAIN_THE_CESSPOOL
Posted on September 13, 2010 at 4:38pmThere are over 10 million in Cuba. My family is from Cuba. Castro took just about everything from them. Their businesses, their houses, everything. Some of my family members are still there in their old age. I’ve seen pictures that they have sent. Grocery store shelves empty. Everything is in shambles…well…except for the resorts. They took a beautiful, civilized island and destroyed it. It’s disgusting. Communism never worked there…and it never will. The same goes for Socialism. It will never work in the US….never.
Report Post »redneck
Posted on September 13, 2010 at 4:52pm500,000 U.S. jobless claims? 500,000 cuban government jobs being cut? Coincident? Or not?
Report Post »Sunnyr
Posted on September 13, 2010 at 4:14pmAnyone tell Comrade Obama yet? The poor fool doesn’t understand that Socialism has never worked in any country on the planet. Love live capitalism and free markets. God Bless America!
Report Post »mightymax
Posted on September 13, 2010 at 4:11pmPerhaps Fidel can teach our government how big government doesn’t work??
Report Post »And stop us before we go too far……
FaithHopeCharity45
Posted on September 13, 2010 at 4:06pmWhat do the Commie‘s know that we don’t?
Report Post »robert5635
Posted on September 13, 2010 at 6:39pmYou can only go so far to the left or right, after running out of options. Proves that we as the human race(or a few people who ‘know better’ how to take from one and give to another) are always changing or direction to suit their own insanity. Some base on money, some base on other differences. All based on envy and jealousy of what someone else has.
Report Post »Disabledvet
Posted on September 13, 2010 at 4:03pmHeck I didn’t know they 500,000 people working there at all, why would you work if the government takes care of all your needs, kinda of where the community organizer obama is taking this country.
Report Post »El Paco
Posted on September 13, 2010 at 4:29pmI didn’t know there were 500,000 people LEFT on Cuba after living in New Jersey for a few years.
Report Post »klstj
Posted on September 13, 2010 at 3:52pmI think its their global plan for redistribution. Tie the hands of America and free everyone else’s. Cuba is not the only country freeing their markets. Think of the opportunities out there if the USA is stifled!
Report Post »TRUTHandFREEDOM
Posted on September 13, 2010 at 7:04pmThat analysis is likely accurate.
Report Post »yongo
Posted on September 13, 2010 at 9:25pmA good point to ponder!!!!!!!!!!! But….. We will prevail…………..
Report Post »RosePurple
Posted on September 13, 2010 at 10:51pmYou may be on to something. All I know is that Fidel has been a comunist for how long now??? What, 50 maybe 60 years now? Makes you think something is up someone’s sleeve……!
Report Post »rocktruth
Posted on September 14, 2010 at 3:02amThat’s what I was saying during the discussion from “Castro Now Says He Was Misinterpreted on Cuban Economy” Sounds like were are headed toward new world / global order.
I was being sarcastic:
“Many of the world systems are not functioning like they should anymore. soooo I got an idea, let’s merge them all into one socialized system. Workers of the world unite! Yeah, That will fix it. Where is Che Guevara and Obama? Maybe they can help with this new revolution.
Uhhhh NO… I don’t think so.”
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/castro-says-he-was-misinterpreted-on-cuban-economy/
Laying of a half million jobs does sound kinda strange.
Or maybe it’s simple as: Communism just doesn’t work!
Report Post »acvnate
Posted on September 14, 2010 at 7:15amAgree
Report Post »KEA
Posted on September 13, 2010 at 3:47pmNot surprising. Communism has NEVER worked!
Report Post »Freelancer
Posted on September 13, 2010 at 3:52pmBut the Obama administration is convinced it can succeed where everyone else has failed. That is how ALL dictators think. THEY are the ones who will get is right – Everyone else just was not smart enough to pull it off.
Report Post »Joseph
Posted on September 13, 2010 at 3:47pmYou can only fold so many papers and put them into envelopes that never are sent to anyone, and then have the other group take the papers uot and stack them all in piles so the first group can do it all over again
Report Post »G man
Posted on September 13, 2010 at 3:46pmToo funny. The party is over, not only here, but throughout the world.
Report Post »Shawn-GA
Posted on September 13, 2010 at 3:45pmMeanwhile here in the USA we have the government becoming the #1 employer hiring right now….
Report Post »dteam270
Posted on September 13, 2010 at 3:44pmOooopppppsss
Report Post »Freelancer
Posted on September 13, 2010 at 3:43pmWhen old Fidel gets it and Obama doesn’t, we KNOW we are in deep crap! Who would have ever thunk Cuba would get away from communism and move toward a free market system? And we are headed in the exact opposite direction…..
Report Post »G man
Posted on September 13, 2010 at 3:47pmObama?
Report Post »capt_ray
Posted on September 13, 2010 at 8:24pmSay, Obama, are you getting the Idea yet ?
Report Post »yongo
Posted on September 13, 2010 at 9:21pmNever too late. Strength in numbers and goodness.
Report Post »dteam270
Posted on September 13, 2010 at 3:40pmLMAO…Want to retract your statement again Fidel
Report Post »dteam270
Posted on September 13, 2010 at 3:39pmLMAO…Want to retract you statement again Fidel.
Report Post »M31Sailor
Posted on September 13, 2010 at 5:51pmWere these all census workers or the workers giving out new toasters?
Report Post »Quazza
Posted on September 13, 2010 at 6:47pmActions always speak louder than words.
Report Post »PeterBreitholtz
Posted on September 13, 2010 at 7:12pmJust once I’d like to swipe that soap and have the corner come out smelling like apple pie!
Report Post »Perseus
Posted on September 13, 2010 at 10:34pmThe people that are running this country dropped LSD and smoked dope while listening to some guru talk about happy, feely, energy in between gulps of cow wiz.
All of them loved Cuba, Russia, North Korea, and China but not one of them went to live there.
Retired government workers in Russia get a whopping $200.00 a month and live in run down flats.
Report Post »