Monday, December 4, 2017 – Garment workers at SNH Global, SA factory in the Caracol Industrial Park confronted a supervisor named Jose for not paying them their wages.
SNH Global is a subsidiary of Sae-A Trading Co. Ltd, Sae-A, a global clothing manufacturer headquartered in South Korea. Sae-A is also the anchor tenant of the Caracol Industrial Park, and is well known for its abuses to workers.
Caracol Industrial Park
Factory owners, manufacturers, and the brands they produce for make millions, sometimes billions of dollars in profit by exploiting these workers with misery wages and wage theft.
Today, the workers at SNH Global fought back.
In the video below, a worker explains what has happened: “This morning, workers walked into the factory, punched in, and walked out in protest against Jose. This is happening at Module Two at Caracol.”
In the video below, workers have confronted the supervisor named Jose, and he his seen driving out of the factory gates.
Haitian garment workers already receive the lowest wage in the western hemisphere, but constantly have to fight to be paid the full sum of their paltry wages. Their salaries are often consumed just by the transportation costs of getting to and from work. Most workers live in debt, and are often on the brink of hunger and homelessness.
Workers this is not the way the country should be!
Students, this is not the way the country should be!
Poor people, this is not the way the country should be!
Street vendors, this is not the way the country should be!
These are the chants that rang out when students, street vendors and the poor, joined garment workers, to march the streets of Port Au Prince, Haiti on Monday, July 10, 2017.
Tuesday, July 11, 2017, workers marched again. This time, over 25,000 workers flooded the streets!
In the video below from the July 11 march, the calls say:
“Jovenel is the lackey of the bosses!”
“We do not want rice!”
“We want 800 Gourdes!”
Jovenel Moise is the current president of Haiti. Workers say they do not want rice, because often factory owners and bosses will pay workers in rice and oil, rather than their wages. Haitians are paid the lowest wage in the western hemisphere.
Haitian Senate Halts Bogus Wage Proposal:
Last night (07.11.17), the Haitian Senate voted on a resolution. They asked President Jovenel Moise to hold off on publishing the State Salary Council’s (CSS) proposal. This prevents the proposal from becoming law, which is the standard process.
Last week, the CSS proposed an increase to 335 Gourdes – an insult to workers. This council is comprised of representatives from the following entities: factory owners, the Haitian government, and labor. The CSS consistently represents the interests of factory owners, as labor is always in minority. Often owners will pay off or manipulate the labor representative on this council.
SOTA-BO, SOKOWA & SOVAGH – textile unions affiliated with Batay Ouvriye – have been saying this.
The Haitian Senate finally acknowledged this corruption and echoed workers’ calls for factory owners to stop acting as slave owners. Several called the CSS and its proposal an affront to workers. They also called on the need for expert study regarding wages and garment workers’ conditions.
These studies have been done several times. A 2014 study by The Solidarity Center titled “The High Cost of Low Wages in Haiti,” concluded that, based on a standard 48-hour work week, Haitian workers should be paid at least 1,006 gourdes per day to adequately provide for themselves and their families. That was three years ago. Workers are actually demanding less than what is said they actually need to survive.
Today, July 12, 2017 – Workers march again.
They will go factory to factory. Haitian Senators said they will participate in today’s march.
TODAY, let’s stand with the workers!
Let’s keep pressure on these politicians!
Let’s Remind Factory Owners Once Again:
HATIAN GARMENT WORKERS ARE NOT YOUR SLAVE LABOR. 800 GOURDES!
Please send an email of support.
You can copy and paste the below email contacts, subject and body.
Spread the word. Send as many emails as you can, from all your different accounts.
I am emailing in support of Haitian garment workers in Port Au Prince, Carrefour, Ounaminthe and Caracol.
335 Gourdes is an insulting proposal.
Workers and their allies will not stop until you pay the decent wage workers are demanding – 800 Gourdes.
They have the rights to organize and demand decent pay to house, feed, clothe and educate themselves.
WORKERS ARE NOT YOUR SLAVES.
I insist on the following:
Pay workers 800 Gourdes minimum wage & provide social services.
Respect workers’ right to organize.
Stop the repression against workers!
In solidarity with Haitian garment workers,
Your Name
City, State, or Country
#RRNsolidarity
#RightToOrganize
#800Gourds
Thank You!
GIANT thanks to all people from around the world who continue to stand with Haitian garment workers and their fight for a minimum wage adjustment!
Your donations, emails, social media posts, tweets and shares continue to have a major impact. The Haitian government, factory owners, and regulatory agencies, normally function with impunity, exploiting and repressing workers as they please. They assume that we don’t know or care where Haiti is. They assume that we only care about consuming cheap goods.
Now, they know that the world is watching. We are not just passive consumers. We are humans expressing our instinct for collectivity and international solidarity.
They cannot repress people fighting for their rights. We will not stand for that. We are many. We are strong.
Don’t stop. Kenbe fem. Stand firm.
Please consider making a donation to help workers continue their efforts.
Your contribution will be used to provide meals to workers at meetings; to print leaflets; to help transport organizers; and to recoup the costs of mobilizing in four locations, since May 19.
After weeks of strikes and mobilizations, many have been arrested. Some must return to work in order to eat. Some have been denied entry into the factories for their participation in the strikes, and cannot pay rent. Some are facing medical bills from police repression. Many factories are shut down, some are out of work.
While many workers are hungry, tired, and struggling to survive, their resolve does not wane.
They are determined to continue this fight. They must. Their survival depends on it.
“It is slavery all over again.” – Anonymous Haitian garment worker
$5/day. Could you survive on $5/day?
TODAY, Monday, June 26, 2017, Haitian garment workers in Port Au Prince are in the streets again, continuing their fight for a minimum wage adjustment from 300 Gourdes (a little less than US $5) to 800 Gourdes (about US $12).
06.26.17 – Port Au Prince – Garment workers take the streets.
We often hear that it’s OK for workers in dominated countries to receive such low wages, because cost of living is far lower than the US, Canada or Europe. However, the reality is that wages in Haiti have not kept up with the cost of living. Workers are paid in Gourdes, but they consume in US dollars, because most food and other goods are imported, not produced in Haiti. So, the cost of goods is not that different from the US.
With the wage of about $5/day (US), workers’ pay is mostly absorbed by food and transportation to and from work. When payday comes, they are saddled in debt from borrowing for food, rent, and education for their children. So, they pay off as many debts as they can, and start the next week(s) still in debt, still hungry, still on the brink of homelessness.
Factory owners, like Charles H. Baker, Clifford Apaid, George Sassine, Allain Villard, and Fernando Capellan, make millions of dollars in profits. They produce for brands and stores like Gildan Activewear, Hanes, Fruit of the Loom, Levi’s, Gap, JC Penney, Walmart and Target. They justify starvation wages with the mantra of, “something is better than nothing.”
Workers cannot survive on 300 Gourdes. They are strung along, paid just enough to get back to the factory… never enough to escape their exploitation and debt.
This is WAGE SLAVERY, and workers are justly fighting back for their rights.
Since May 19, garment workers have carried out strikes, work stoppages, marches, and demonstrations, throughout Haiti in four main cities – Port Au Prince, Carrefour, Ounaminthe and Caracol. They stand firm in their demand for 800 Gourdes.
Friday, June 23rd, workers held a sit in, in front of the SONAPI Industrial Park in Port Au Prince.
Saturday, June 24th, workers again gathered outside SONAPI in Port Au Prince to hand out leaflets and to call workers to mobilize again this Monday, June 26th, in support of their demand for 800 Gourdes. In the video below, they chant, “Monday morning! Agitation!”
Saturday, June 24th, Le Nouvelliste, the main newspaper of Haiti, published an article on the perspective of factory owners. Six textile manufacturing companies – The Willbes Haitian SA; MGA Haiti SA; Astro Carton d’Haiti SA; Haiti Cheung Won SA; Textile Youm Kwang SA and Pacific Sports Haiti SA – are pressuring president Jovenel Moise to halt workers’ mobilizations. After weeks of stopped and slowed down production, the companies have lost millions of dollars (US). Now, they say that if the workers do not stop, they will be forced to seek “other alternatives in search of stability.”
For the garment industry, the globe is viewed as two separate sections. They look at Asia as one option, and Central/South America/the Caribbean as their other option. But usually they like to utilize both, rather than choosing between them. They ping-pong with their business from one country to the next, pitting nation against nation in competition with one another for who can provide goods at the lowest cost.
Union organizers in Haiti shared their perspective of the situation. They say this article is a preface indicating the possibility of two things:
Repression to squash the garment workers’ upcoming new wave of resistance
Pressure for the government to hasten a wage adjustment
TODAY. Let’s also send a message to Haitian President, Jovenel Moise and Prime Minister, Jack Guy Lafontant.
“Pay Workers #800Gourdes!”
Let’s flood their Twitter feeds. Send Facebook Direct Messages. Post on their Facebook pages.
I am messaging in support of Haitian garment workers.
Factory owners and the brands they produce for make millions, sometimes billions of dollars in profit by exploiting these workers with wage slavery. They are within their rights to organize and demand decent pay to house, feed, clothe and educate themselves.
Garment workers are not wage slaves.
I insist on the following:
Pay workers 800 Gourdes minimum wage & provide social services.
Please consider making a donation to help workers continue their efforts.
Your contribution will be used to provide meals to workers at meetings; to print leaflets; to help transport organizers; and to recoup the costs of mobilizing in four locations for a month.
After weeks of strikes and mobilizations, the workers are now regrouping. Many have been arrested. Some must return to work in order to eat. Some have been denied entry into the factories for their participation in the strikes.
While many workers are hungry, tired, and struggling to survive, their resolve does not wane.
They are determined to continue this fight. They must. Their survival depends on it.
