Matanzas/Working in Varadero is no longer a privilege for the thousands of employees of the largest tourist center in Cuba. For months now, getting to hotels every day has become a real nightmare. The fuel crisis and the lack of tires, batteries and spare parts have reduced the Transmetro buses that connected Matanzas and Cárdenas with the Peninsula to less than half. The alternative suggested by some – using Transtur vehicles, unoccupied due to the decline in international tourism – was ruled out at a stroke: these buses “are only authorized to transport tourists.” Although today, ironically, many remain parked without any use.
This clash between necessity and bureaucracy runs through the entire crisis. “Are these times for such bureaucratism?” asks the official newspaper Girón, faced with an absurdity that has already become everyday life for workers.
The newspaper tells the magnitude of the chaos in a extensive report published this week. It describes the routine of a veteran employee of the sector – who is introduced as Wicho – who must leave his house before dawn and rely on a random chain of transportation to get to the hotel where he works.
Wicho has been in tourism for 36 years, lives about 50 kilometers from his workplace and gets up at 4:30 in the morning every day. Before, if the bus failed I could rent a car. Today that is unthinkable. The current crisis has made everything more expensive and his salary is not enough for improvisations.
The Provincial Transportation Company recognizes that it works with only 32% of the fuel it had allocated before the fuel crisis
The 3:30 p.m. return shift, traditional for hundreds of employees, was eliminated. Now we just have to wait until 5:30, with the constant uncertainty of whether the bus will appear or not. Sometimes, the news that “there will be no transportation” arrives when people are already at the stop, leaving a wave of workers thrown onto the road, trying to “solve” whatever happens, from motorcycles to private cars.
The Provincial Transportation Company recognizes that it works with only 32% of the fuel it had allocated before the fuel crisis. This leaves passenger transportation – including thousands of tourism employees – in a situation of chronic instability. The director of the entity, Roberto Bernal Villena, admits that making decisions has become an exercise in survival: “The fuel is finite, and when it runs out, it runs out.”
Transmetro, responsible for labor routes, confirms that years ago transportation to Varadero received 8,500 liters per day from Matanzas and 6,500 from Cárdenas. Today that figure has sometimes fallen to less than half. Technical availability has also plummeted, with only 66 active vehicles out of the 145 needed. Tomorrow there will be fewer. Tires, batteries, lubricants, basic parts: everything is missing.
This decrease forces an improvised rearrangement that generates more chaos than solutions. When a bus completes its route, it returns to pick up those who were stranded at the stop. It is the so-called “second position”, a kind of lifeguard that arrives late and leaves a direct impact on the pockets, because whoever arrives at the hotel hours late loses part of the day’s salary. Conversely, those who work overtime because their replacement did not arrive do not receive additional remuneration either.
“The workers look tired, they smile little, and the client realizes it,” laments the provincial secretary of the Hotel and Tourism union, Marta Yarisleydis Torriente.
Despite the evidence, there is no shortage of official voices that try to disguise the seriousness of the matter. The director of Transmetro in Matanzas, Raidel Paumier, assures that “there is no instability,” only “some delays.” And he adds: “We have not stopped transporting anyone.”
But the workers tell another story. They prefer to leave on their own rather than wait for a second transportation that can take hours and mean salary deductions. In practice, the company is unable to cover the scheduled schedules or replace broken buses. Information about the effects also does not reach employees on time; It remains on the desks of directors of the Ministry of Tourism and companies like Gaviota.
In addition to the technical deficit, irritation is growing due to the behavior of some drivers. There are many cases in which drivers pass by stops where they should pick up personnel. “That doesn’t concern me,” they respond, despite the fact that the routes have been temporarily unified precisely due to the lack of buses. Sometimes, the refusal is accompanied by mistreatment, another symptom of the general wear and tear of the system.
“What’s the point of defending a regulation when there are no tourists to transport?”
The measures taken by Transmetro, far from improving the situation, have created new bottlenecks. By unifying shifts, the buses fill up more, waiting times become longer and each hour becomes a coin toss.
In this scenario, the provincial Hotel and Tourism union put forward several proposals. The main one: hiring Transtur, a company that maintains a large fleet of buses in perfect condition, but empty, due to the collapse of foreign tourism.
The answer was negative. The corporate purpose of Transtur – the managers recalled – is to transport tourists, not workers. The reality, however, is that most of these vehicles spend the day parked, without a single passenger. In the words of many: “What’s the point of defending a regulation when there are no tourists to transport?”
Hiring private transporters was another option suggested, but it did not succeed either. Meanwhile, workers continue to pay in advance for a service that is not fulfilled and for which there is no reimbursement.
Few areas generate more foreign exchange for the country than tourism. However, the basic support that allows its operation – employee mobility – is today on the verge of collapse. In hotels where a smile is part of the service, exhaustion outweighs any protocol. There is no operational plan that can withstand 24-hour days because the relief was left on the road.
