Haitian Workers Shutdown Factories

October 2025

Insecurity continues in Haiti. On February 7, 2026 the current transitional government’s term ends. This temporary administration aimed to hold elections before this end date, but this is unlikely.

There are two departments (similar to states in the US) in Haiti that hold the most votes – The West and Artibonite. These are also the areas most plagued by gang violence with homes being burned alongside regular shootings, and the rape of women.

“On 30 September, the UN Security Council authorized a new multinational Gang Suppression Force (GSF) in Haiti to replace the Kenyan-led security support mission, amid escalating gang violence, widespread rights abuses and a humanitarian emergency affecting all aspects of life in the island nation” (United Nations). The Haitian transitional leadership hopes this new military group will be able to suppress the gangs to allow for elections, but they have yet to arrive in the country.

Meanwhile, anger and frustration are high, particularly among workers as gang violence and overall instability blocks them from working while they struggle to stay alive. On September 25^, 2025, in Port Au Prince, garment workers and members of the Batya Ouvriye affiliated union, SOTA-BO, held a sit-in, in front of the Prime Minister’s office and the Council of Presidential Transition (CPT), demanding increased wages. Mobilizing like this is a greater risk in the capital city as this is the apex of gang activity, showing how desperate these workers are for change.

In October 2025, in Ouanaminthe at the CODEVI Free Trade Zone, workers shut down the industrial park. At their meeting with government officials, workers warned officials that they need to come with ways to increase, not decrease production. Further, they put forward that this production should benefit the Haiti and its people, rather than being purely extractive, as is the current arrangement.

HOPE/HELP?

On September 30, 2025, the day before the longest US government shutdown in histtory, the Hope and Help Acts expired. These laws allow textiles produced in Haiti to enter the US and Canada mostly tariff-free.

Production in Haitian industrial parks has decreased drastically as gangs terrorize neighborhoods, control roads, highways and ports, making factory production increasingly difficult for workers’ safety and manufacturers’ operations.

Apparel accounted for over 90% of U.S. merchandise imports from Haiti. The apparel sector also provided over 60,000 jobs in Haiti in 2021, though this number declined to nearly 22,000 by 2024 due to political instability and security concerns.

A representative of Batay Ouvriye told the RRN that as of October 2025, CODEVI Free Trade Zone is the biggest operation right now with 20,000 workers. At SONAPI industrial park in Port Au Prince there are less than 5,000 workers right. At Caracol Industrial Park in Cap Haitien there are about 2,000 workers.

In a country as dominated by imperialism as Haiti, brands and manufacturers want everything – land, infrastructure, workforce, and they want it cheapest, but ideally free. If they don’t get their way, they pack up and leave. When you add gang violence to the loss of duty-free imports to the US, global brands are even more likely to leave the country. The current global economy is arranged to facilitate corporations’ ability to globe-hop to wherever labor is cheapest, regulation is non-existent, and taxes and tariffs are minimal. Companies extract, exploit, and put nothing back into the country and people where goods are made.

In this tense situation, Haitian manufacturers, on behalf of global brands produced in the country continue to try to squeeze workers for additional profit, and the trade unions affiliated with the workers movement Batay Ouvriye have hit a boiling point.

BO vs. CODEVI

 CODEVI Free Trade Zone is located in Ounaminthe, a city in the northwest region of Haiti, bordering the Dominican Republic. CODEVI a Haitian company, owned and managed by Dominican company, Grupo M.  The industrial park mostly produces textiles. Here’s a list of the brands produced at CODEVI:

Old Navy, Fruit of the Loom, Levi’s, GAP, Dockers, Liz Claiborne, Polo, Hanes, Calvin Klein, Columbia Sportswear, Levi Strauss, Lucky Brand Jeans, Nordstrom, Dillard’s

Since 1994, Batay Ouvriye (Workers Struggle) has been building a nation-wide workers’ movement. They organize textile workers and informal workers (street vendors) in the cities and peasants and agricultural workers in the rural areas of Haiti.

Inside CODEVI there are several BO-affiliated unions including:

• SOKOWA-BO
• SEDOC-BO
• SOTECO-BO
• SYNTRAC

Shutdown of CODEVI

Article 107 of the Haitian Labor Code says if a worker works 48 hours per week, or six days per week, they should get paid for a rest day on Sunday. Management at CODEVI has not complied with this article for years. The BO unions pressured them to comply. CODEVI agreed to begin applying Article 107 on October 6, 2025.

However, they also said that they would now begin taking 20% tax from workers’ paychecks. These are taxes the employer is responsible for paying to the government towards a fund that pays workers for extra hours and for the paid holiday during the month of December.

Prior to this round of negotiations around Article 107, CODEVI was paying these taxes. But when the workers asked for the paid rest day that is legally owed to them, CODEVI tried to shift the cost of these taxes onto the workers.

In response, on October 6, 2025, the workers of CODEVI, led by BO unions, walked out of their respective factories, shutting down production. The same occurred the following day.

On October 8, 2025, workers met with government officials including the Minister of Finance, Minister of Labor, and Minister of Economy & Industry. These officials agreed to temporarily pause collection of the taxes, protecting CODEVI, and pushing workers to resume their jobs in the factories.  But, the workers said no based on being disregarded in the negotiation process. The workers were included in this meeting, but their items were not included in the formal meeting agenda. So workers shut down CODEVI again with walkouts and work stoppage.

Monday, October 13, 2025, CODEVI requested a temporary suspension of operations for one month from the Ministry of Labor from October 13th through November 7^th, meaning workers would be out of work this entire time.

Two days later on October 15^th, CODEVI reneged on this suspension of operations. Instead, they put out a letter telling workers to get back to work. The government put out a statement saying it will withdraw both taxes, but no word about the minimum wage.

Workers’ Demands

• No more taxes
• Publish a new minimum wage adjustment
  • Article 107 of the Haitian Labor Code also states that whenever there is a 10% increase in inflation, the government is supposed to adjust the minimum wage. They have not adjusted the wage since April, 2022. The inflation rate is currently around 40%.
  • Workers are demanding 2,500 gourdes/day (about $19 USD/day)
• Social Benefits
  • There is a loan from the world bank the Haitian government can use to address social needs. This program will be over in 2026. Workers receive about 1500 gourdes from this fund at the beginning of each school year for back to school costs. This has been occurring for two years. Workers want a similar program to continue
  • Housing – affordable units with rent to own programs
  • Education costs – books, tuition, etc.
  • Transportation – subsidized for workers to commute to and from home and the factory
  • Subsidized meals and basic food goods in the industrial parks
• Increase Production for Haiti & Haitians
  • At their meeting with government officials, union organizers pressed officials for increased production that benefits the country and its people with economic and social investment in Haiti and Haitians.