FOR decades, jobs at Venezuela’s state-run oil giant PDVSA were coveted for above-average salaries, generous benefits and cheap credit that brought home ownership and holidays abroad within reach for many staff. Now, in Venezuela’s asphyxiating economy, even PDVSA staff are struggling to pay for everything from food and bus rides to school fees as triple-digit inflation gulps incomes. They are pawning goods, maxing out credit cards, taking side jobs and even selling PDVSA uniforms to buy food, according to interviews with two dozen workers, family members, and union leaders. "Every day a PDVSA worker comes to sell his overall," says Elmer, a hawker at the biggest market in the oil city of Maracaibo, as shoppers eyed pricey rice and flour imported from neighbouring Colombia. "They also sell boots, trousers, gloves and masks." The bulk of PDVSA’s roughly 150,000 workers make $35-$150 a month plus about $90 in food tickets, as calculated at the black market exchange rate. It is still m...
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