Labor Relations in Reform-Era Cuba

Abstract

As part of the model-updating reform started in 2011, there has been a significant shift in Cuba's labor relations. Although the share of state jobs in the labor force — in public institutions and enterprises — is the largest, non-state jobs dominate if enterprises alone are considered. In the non-state sector, self- and family employment predominate, but new private enterprises are growing fast while cooperatives and their membership decrease. These changes in the employment structure have greatly impacted Cuban society, with growing inequalities in income, labor conditions, and rights, gender, skin color. The new preponderance of private wage relations has severe implications for Cuban socialism. To be consistent with the agreed-on documents guiding the reform and with the sacrifices made by generations of Cubans to build a post-capitalist society, the Cuban Revolution must build a new socialist hegemony inside workplaces and beyond. The non-state sector cannot be regulated and guided toward satisfying the needs and aspirations of the Cuban people only through norms, incentive policies, and administrative measures. A new hegemony of socialist relations is fundamental to secure a future for the Cuban Revolution.