Rapid Response Network

Category: Haiti

  • 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 7th, meaning workers would be out of work this entire time.

    Two days later on October 15th, 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.
         
  • Haiti Update + Call to Organize

    Haiti Update + Call to Organize

    March 14, 2022

    • As Haitian garment workers continue to fight for their rights, we in the US can learn from their example of independent organization.
    • What follows is an update on the recent strikes in Haiti for increased wages, and a call to build independent organization here in the US.

    UPDATE

    In the last days of February 2022, Haitian garment workers were brutally repressed for taking the streets to demand an increased minimum wage of 1,500 Gourdes per day ($14.81 USD). On February 23rd, one reporter was shot and killed, with two others shot and several injured. You can read more about that update here.

    Learn more about the historical context of Haitian garment workers’ continued fight for wages.

    In the days that followed this atrocity, workers continued their mobilization effort. On Thursday, February 24th, workers gathered in their usual location outside the Sonapi Industrial Park on Airport Road in Port Au Prince. As they waited for their sound truck to arrive, police opened fire on the assembled workers and their supporters, forcing them to disperse. Angered and undeterred, the workers gathered again outside the park the following day, Friday, February 25th. This time, they were attacked inside the industrial park with teargas when they attempted to gather more workers to join them. In response workers took the streets outside the park, burning tires and blocking the road.

    These days of mobilization were in response to the government’s insulting wage adjustment of 685 gourdes per day ($6.50 USD), far from the workers’ demand of 1,500 gourdes ($14.81 USD). In their announcement on February 21st, the government also said they would offer lunch and transportation subsidies for workers. (Transportation to and from work costs about 200 gourdes per day.) But, no details or timeline about how or when these programs would be implemented.

    "For 1,500 Gourdes without increased quotas!"
    “For 1,500 Gourdes without increased quotas!”

    The government also stayed quiet on the issue of production wages. In addition to the legal minimum wage set by the state, factory owners set a production wage based on a quota system. If workers reach their quota, they receive an additional wage above the minimum wage, sort of like a bonus… except even with this “bonus” their wages do not meet the costs of living. While this production wage is set by the private manufacturers, the government is supposed to also put forward a fair and legal suggestion of what this wage should be based on costs of living, inflation, etc. The government’s silence on this issue allows factory owners to continue their normal practice of setting quotas impossibly high, so that they never have to increase workers’ pay.

    Additionally, workers who participated in the strike and mobilization continue to be illegally fired and harassed at work. If the unions are not present to push back, union workers become eliminated and blacklisted from work in the industrial parks.

    Given this context, SOTA-BO in coalition with four other unions is shifting gears from the streets to dealing with firings, fighting factory owners on the production wage, and pressuring the government to follow through on their mention of subsidies. The unions told the prime minister, Ariel Henry, that he has until May to come up with a formal plan and to start implementing the promised meal and transportation subsidies.

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    CALL TO ORGANIZE!

    While this situation is extreme in its brutality and clear-cut exploitation, the struggle of Haitian garment workers is universal… and most often, universally obscured. For example, in the constant and widespread coverage of the war in Ukraine, no attention has been paid to how this war affects Ukranian miners who have been in a battle to address their unlivable wages and incredibly dangerous working conditions.

    As our feeds are flooded with news of monumental wars, climate crises, racism and xenophobia, one fundamental reality remains the same – the need for food and goods that are produced and distributed by workers and laborers who are always being compelled to work more for less. And, just as the workers in Haiti and Ukraine are fighting back, so are laborers and workers across the US. People are refusing low wages, forming new unions, and striking at factories and plants across the country.

    At the same time, we are in a moment where the interests of profit have saturated every social and political issue, including labor. SEIU tried to block Puerto Rican teachers from doing what’s best for their interests. The AFL-CIO’s Solidarity Center has collaborated with the US government to wage war on dominated countries and to limit the demands of workers in countries outside the US. If we want to shift to organizing for what’s best for workers, children, communities and the planet, then we need organizations that remain independent from profit motives.

    This is why the RRN supports SOTA-BO and the other organizations affiliated with the Haitian workers movement Batay Ouvriye (BO). Different from many of the unions in the US and other imperialist countries, Batay Ouvriye has maintained its independence from political parties, nonprofits and union bureaucracies that try to cap the demands and struggles of workers. Without these constraints there is the possibility for laborers and workers to coordinate their efforts, to lend solidarity based on their common interests as the people who actually make society possible.

    The RRN encourages all efforts towards organization, better wages and working conditions. The network actively supports those who are organizing independently with rank and file workers leading decisions about their struggles and interests. And, we want to support more independent efforts! 

    • If you have been thinking about getting organized in your workplace and you want to talk about what it means and looks like to do that independently, then get in touch!
    • If you’re already organized and dealing with union bureaucracy and limitations, let’s talk about that too!
    • Are you angry, frustrated and want to talk more about what it means to organize? Get in touch.

    RRN is not an organization, but as a network we will work to put you in touch with folks already organizing independently.

    Let’s get organized! Let’s build international solidarity!

    RRNsolidarity@gmail.com
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    Batay l’ap kontinye/The Struggle Continues

    Solidarity Forever!

  • Workers Shot, Reporter Killed in Fight for Increased Wages

    Workers Shot, Reporter Killed in Fight for Increased Wages

    Note:  A big thanks to those who lent their solidarity to the workers and peasants of Batay Ouvriye during RRN’s emergency Summer/Fall 2021 fundraiser! Thanks to you we surpassed our $10,000 goal. Your support played a role in helping these workers through a very difficult time, so that they could organize this current campaign for 1,500 gourdes.

    Thursday, February 24, 2022
    Port Au Prince, Haiti

    Since February 9th, Haitian garment workers have been striking and taking the streets of the capital Port Au Prince to demand an increased minimum wage of 1,500 gourdes per day ($14.41 USD) from 500 gourdes per day ($4.80 USD).

    Since the start of these mobilizations, workers and their broad base of supporters have been met with tear gas and police repression. But yesterday, February 23rd, the repression reached a new intensity with one reporter shot and killed, reports of two other people injured and sent to hospital, and a worker who took two bullets to the leg is also in hospital. Several people were grazed by bullets and tear gas canisters launched at workers and protestors.

    REUTERS/Ralph Tedy Erol
    REUTERS/Ralph Tedy Erol

    The strike action and march on Wednesday, February 23rd was a response to the government’s insulting offer of 685 gourdes per day ($6.50 USD). For perspective, one egg costs about 50 gourdes. One banana costs about 25 gourdes. A plate of spaghetti from a lunch vendor costs about 100 gourdes. Transportation to and from work costs about 200 gourdes per day. Meanwhile inflation and the costs of all goods continue to rise, decreasing the value of the Haitain gourde and making it impossible for workers to pay rent, feed themselves, their families, or send their children to school. What are workers supposed to do with 685 gourdes? It’s a slap in the face.

    By law, the minimum wage is supposed to be adjusted annually for inflation. It has not been adjusted in three years. In the press conference video above on Tuesday, February 22nd, Telemark Pierre of the union SOTA-BO, explains that the workers do not accept the government’s offer, and that the workers will continue to mobilize.

    Pierre also exposed factory owners’ level of theft and exploitation in speaking to the press. The brands produced in Haiti, like Gildan, Hanes, Fruit of the Loom, UnderArmour, Gap, and Walmart pay Haitian factory owners like Clifford Apaid, Charles Baker, and Alain Villard in US dollars. The owners pay workers in Haitian gourdes, meaning they instantly pocket a profit in this exchange. On top of this, Haitian workers receive the lowest wage in the western hemisphere, allowing factory owners to make millions of dollars in profits. The brands make billions. The money is there for a meager 1500 gourdes per day (less than $15 USD PER DAY, not per hour).

    Factory owner Clifford Apaid is one of the 10 richest people in Haiti. He comes from one of Haiti’s most powerful families, dominates the factory owner lobbying group, the Association of Haitian Industries (ADIH), and also holds a level of power over the interim prime minister, Ariel Henry. Despite the immense level of his personal (about $350 million USD) and family wealth, he leads the effort of factory owners to resist wage adjustments and increases, along with consistently repressing workers’ legal right to organize.

    In the above video, the woman yells to the police:

    “What we, the workers, are demanding is just! You should not be teargassing us. These are your mothers out here! You can’t do that! The only reason you are able to stand here today as a police officer is because you had a mother who worked in a factory! These are your mothers!!”

    The workers hold broad support from neighborhood associations, human rights organizations, progressive political organizations, economists, street merchants and vendors, and even some politicians. Thousands of people have filled the street as workers or supporters of their demands. This is significant, as there have not been mobilizations of this scale in Port Au Prince since the assassination of former president Jovenel Moise and the increased power and violence of street gangs who control much of the city.

    These workers have contributed to a shift from fear to fighting back. Many people, besides the workers, have been in the streets to make sure that the mobilizations can continue, contributing to blockading streets, sending tear gas canisters back to the police, protecting each other from arrests and police attacks.

    This struggle is one we can all relate to. Across the US, workers and laborers are going on strike and organizing for better wages and working conditions. Around the world the people are struggling to keep up with costs of living as corporations see record profits. We can learn from the example of Haitian workers’ unrelenting struggle to organize and fight against domination and exploitation. When we are all organized, international solidarity truly comes to life!

    February 17th, 2021 REUTERS/Ralph Tedy Erol
    February 17th, 2022 REUTERS/Ralph Tedy Erol

    The RRN has received reports that the strike and march attempted for today, February 24th, was dispersed before it could start. Police surrounded the Sonapi Industrial Park, the regular starting point of marches, firing gun shots into the crowd. But, the struggle is not done…  because their fight is just, and their demand is a dire necessity. Some workers have been fired for their union activity. More firings are expected. Paychecks will be short because of the time off of work.

    If you can lend solidarity in the form of a donation for workers struggling to both eat and keep the fight going, it is much appreciated. The RRN works with the trade unions affiliated with the independent Haitian workers movement, Batay Ouvriye (BO). SOTA-BO is the union in Port Au Prince that has been at the forefront of this current mobilization. Your donation will be sent directly to Haiti to support these union members.

    Click here to DONATE.

    PS:  Thank you again if you gave during the Summer/Fall 2021 fundraiser to help Haitian workers and peasants with Batay Ouvriye continue organizing! Your donations provided important funds to help workers meet costs of living and for meetings to continue happening among workers and peasants. Can you spread the word to friends, family, coworkers, classmates to tell them what’s going on and ask them to lend their support?

    Thank you for your Solidarity!

    Kenbe Fem/Stay Strong
    Batay L’ap Kontinye/The Struggle Continues
    Mesi anpil/Thank you very much!