If you’ve participated in RRN campaigns, you know we’ve organized several of solidarity efforts in support textile workers who are members of SOTA-BO, aka Sendika Ouvriye Takstil ak Abiman.
Most recently the RRN rallied solidarity for Telemarque Pierre & Felixone Clerger, who were fired from Premium Apparel for organizing a strike for a higher minimum wage, plus H&H Textile workers who were unjustly fired for being SOTA organizers – Lucitha Julessaint , Jean Louis Marie Ederse, Olga Miallard, & Ruth Joseph.
For those of you just finding the RRN, SOTA is a trade union of textile workers from different factories in Port Au Prince, Haiti, affiliated with Batay Ouvriye. Batay Ouvriye (Workers Fight) is an autonomous workers’ movement in Haiti.
It’s important to the RRN that we support workers who are able to set the terms of their own struggles and campaigns. We aim to coordinate solidarity efforts with workers and organizations that are autonomous. This means rank and file workers are the ones who make decisions, and that their efforts are not controlled or dictated by some other entity or organization’s interests, such as political parties, politicians, imperialist interests, or NGO’s.
This September, SOTA celebrates its five year anniversary as an autonomous union! We send our solidarity for their ongoing struggles, and are happy to celebrate their growth, and all they have accomplished in just five years.
H&H Textiles: For the last two weeks, RRN supporters emailed and took selfies to stand with H&H Textiles workers. Last Thursday, 8/4, management at H&H finally met with SOTA union to discuss the firings. We’re still waiting for a full update from Haiti on the results of this meeting. But, you’ll be happy to know that H&H management and the negotiation team mentioned the pressure they felt from the RRN. They said it really wasn’t good for their PR image. How about paying people a decent wage and respecting their rights for a good PR image?
