Employment in Cuba Is Based on Contacts Not Qualifications
HAVANA TIMES – My neighbor, a friend and a person I consider a good man, has landed a job at the Customs’ Office that many would envy. I recall that on one occasion a few years ago, I too wanted that job. Working in the airport meant a lot of work, but also a very good salary. In addition to an amount paid in the national currency, they also offered a percentage in dollars – later CUC – a bag of personal hygiene items, and a food box with things like spaghetti, tomato paste, and other items that varied each month. You even received tips for service, which are a very welcome addition to one’s pockets.
I went to all the interviews; I scored very high in the exam I took for English proficiency, because I studied hard for it; I did the required psychological exams without delay, and I turned in all the documents required. Time passed, and they never called me.
Shortly after this, another friend who’s an industrial engineer came to visit, and we begin talking about how difficult it is to obtain good jobs. You may find a lot of open jobs, but the majority have very low pay, and that level of salary doesn’t even cover the first week of the month. While we were on the subject, I commented that there’d been a call for job applicants to work in Customs’, and that I’d gone to apply but hadn’t had any luck. They didn’t call me.
My friend, who was part of the system up to a point, revealed the mechanism behind this. “Lien, he told me, they take open applications so that in case of an audit they can show that everything’s in order. But in reality, those really good jobs already have first and last names on them. Sometimes, someone who came in from the street gets a job, but it’s a tiny percentage.” That explained why, despite all my efforts, I wasn’t ever going to classify with them. You need what they call “a lever”, in other words another person who’s already in the system to help you get into this workplace, student opportunity, or whatever you desire to get into.
Later, I also understood that I had some factors weighing against my prospects of entering these positions. Like having a father outside the country – one of the questions they ask is: “Do you have relatives outside the country, and who? My education was religious – at that time, I’d just graduated from the Matanzas Evangelical Theology Seminary – and to the communists, that’s a capital sin. In addition, I almost surely appeared in their database as someone unhappy with the country’s reigning political system.
I don’t know why I hadn’t thought about this before but did the work of going to their offices to ask for a position and to show I met all their qualifications, that were more than a few.
Now, my neighbor comes to visit and tells me, very pleased, about his new job possibilities at the airport. That he’s taken all the tests. I told him what had happened to me but kept to myself the comments of my other friend, the industrial engineer. Nor did I want to share with him the reasons I was never called. I only told him not to pin too many dreams on that matter, because the dynamic in those places is very complex. He answered me with the same cheer he began the conversation with.
“Don’t worry, the boss already called me and told me it was a sure thing I’d be chosen for the job. So, no problems.” I was happy for him.
My mother has already seen him in the uniform. They said hello to each other, and he asked her to relay his affectionate greetings. Getting a decent job that will bring a quality lifestyle and self-esteem is always cause for celebration. This applies to everyone. The challenge is when we live in a political system that, even in this day and age, determines who can live with that sense of pride and who can’t, for disconcerting reasons that many countries would consider a violation of human rights.
Among the reasons behind so many popular protest demonstrations against the government in Cuba are, of course, the lack of water, food, gas, electricity, but also the lack of freedom, rights of every kind, plus not being able to express ourselves in any way without risking very severe punishment, disproportionate to this inherent need. But we’re also unable to forget many other injustices committed during these six decades of our national history.