Since April 13, 2026, Batay Ouvriye affiliated unions have been taking to the streets across Haiti in Port Au Prince, Ounaminthe, and Caracol. The mobilizations are a response to the government hike in fuel prices which have doubled transportation costs, while garment workers’ wages have not been adjusted for cost of living increases, as mandated by the labor code, in four years.
The minimum wage in garment assembly factories is 685 gourdes/day (~ $5.23 USD). Gasoline now costs 850 gourdes/gallon (~ $6.50 USD).
Yannick Etienne, a representative of Batay Ouvriye, shared that workers who commute from Carrefour (just south of Port Au Prince) to the SONAPI Industrial Park in the capital spend 600 gourdes per day on their commute alone. With a daily wage of 685 gourdes, they are left with 85 gourdes to pay rent, buy food, and send their children to school. It’s impossible. Workers are rightfully outraged.
Here are their demands:
For the government to reverse its decision to increase fuel prices;
For the government to issue a decree setting the minimum wage at 3,000 gourdes without increasing production tariffs, and to adopt accompanying social measures such as subsidies for transportation, social housing, and schools for workers’ children;
For the government to finalize the decision previously taken by the Minister of Commerce together with the Minister of Finance to suspend a series of taxes and duties for workers in the textile sector.
We call upon the Haitian government to take urgent actions to address the worsening security crisis. The government must resolve the insecurity that armed gangs are spreading in various areas of the country. These measures are essential to restore peace, protect communities, and ensure that workers and citizens can live and work without fear. We urge the authorities to act decisively to dismantle gang networks and guarantee safety across the nation. The programmed insecurity must stop immediately.
Etienne shared that the most sustained mobilization is happening in Port Au Prince led by workers from the SONAPI Industrial Park. Debilitated by gang violence, the park that once employed 60,000 workers now employs around 2,000, mostly women.
“These women are not messing around. They are determined to force the government to address their demands.”
When the sound truck arrives outside SONAPI around 6am, the women quickly go inside to punch in, then walk out. Etienne said they often have to force their way out of the factory as managers try to lock them in.
Women workers sing and celebrate. They pushed their way out of the factories to join the protest outside SONAPI Industrial Park.
On May 1st, the workers will mobilize again for their demands, and in recognition of International Workers Day.
Some Florida members of the RRN have organized a fundraiser to support their efforts, alongside a screening of the short documentary, Batay La (The Struggle). Please consider making a donation.
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.
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!”
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.
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!
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
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, 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.
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!
