This is why police began taking and destroying workers’ phones. They are used to operating with impunity, but they know we are watching. Organizers also said, if it weren’t for RRN solidarity and pressure, police repression against the workers would be even worse.
Also, today in the Haitian newspaper, Le Nouvelliste, Association of Industries of Haiti (ADIH) president, George Sassine showed that he too is feeling the international pressure. He is one of the contacts the RRN has been emailing.
He said, “I never said I was against the minimum wage adjustment. I have never sold Haiti’s low wages. I sell the proximity and the availability to find workers and the law Hope. ”
ADIH is comprised of factory owners. They consistently market Haiti to the global textile industry with its “comparative advantages” of extremely cheap labor and proximity to the US. The Hope and Help Acts allow goods produced in Haiti to enter the US and Canada tariff-free.
ADIH also put out false claims at the start of the strike, Friday 5/19/17, claiming that striking workers were attacking factories and fellow workers. We have seen in photos and videos from workers that the violence and repression is from factory owners working to protect their profits.
Thank you to RRN members from Haiti, Dominican Republic, Brasil, France, the US, Canada, and all over the globe!
Maybe it’s your college or team t-shirt, your running shorts, or a cheesy polo with the company logo that your job likes everyone to where on Fridays… somewhere in your wardrobe, there is likely an article of Gildan brand clothing.
In 2015 Gildan generated $2.57 billion in revenue, an increase of 11.7% from 2014, thanks to the exploited labor of garment workers in Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, and Nicaragua.
Workers in Port Au Prince take the streets again to march.
At MbI Haiti, SA factory, several workers attempted to join the march, but we’re forced to remain inside the factory gates by police. In the first video, the woman worker yells, “They call the police to beat us. You have no right to touch us.” The loud popping noise is rubber bullets being shot at the workers. The screams are when they are being attacked.
In this video, also at MbI Haiti, the woman yells, “Don’t beat us! Don’t Talk to him. He is for the boss!”
RRN also received a report that some workers needed to return to work to be able to pay for food and rent. But, SOTA union lead organizers were prevented from entering the factories.
Sun 5/28/17
SOTA-BO textile union held an assembly at the Batay Ouvriye workers center in Port Au Prince to plan how to proceed with Operasyon Bra Kwaze/Operation Arms Crossed.
— RapidResponseNetwork (@RRNSolidarity) May 28, 2017
Sunday was also Mother’s Day in Haiti and the RRN received this image from Haiti that says, “Solidarity with Mothers Who Labor in the Factory – 800 Gourdes!”
Fri 5/26/17
CIMO, the riot division of the Haiti National Police repressed workers at H&H Textiles in Carrefour, Haiti. We received a report that one worker was slapped by police.
CIMO National Police at H&H Textiles factory.
Next Steps
We are waiting to hear from the workers what comes next. The president of Haiti, Jovenel Moise, made a statement that he had no intention to adjust the minimum wage. Workers have been striking for over 10 days. There may be a pause in mobilization for rest and to recoup, but the struggle will most definitely continue. They are determined.
In the audio below, workers sing, “Jovenel, we have the right to 800!”
Last, please make a financial contribution to help these workers continue their fight.
The act of striking is incredibly brave. It requires a serious sacrifice, and a level of cooperation and care for their collective interest. Striking means no wages. It means hungry families, no money for transit, for school, or for the market. It means the rent will not be paid and the possibility of homelessness. And yet, the textile workers continue on… because they recognize that the only path to justice is through their collective fight. It’s their only alternative to starvation wages and further exploitation.
Workers are determined to continue with the ongoing strikes. They are fierce and brave, but they are also hungry, and funds to continue the strike are low.
Let’s stand with them!
We must not passively accept the presence of products on store shelves without understanding—and actively opposing—the harsh conditions of exploitation and repression under which they are produced.
Skip a few cups of coffee or a dinner out, and donate that money to Haitian garment workers.
Garment workers across Haiti have been striking and demonstrating to demand:
A minimum wage adjustment from 350 Gourdes ($5.50 US) to 800 Gourdes ($12.60)per day, on top of meal, transportation and housing subsidies
Social Services
They demand that production quotas do not increase with the increased minimum wage
They are under attack, but are not backing down. Stand with them!
Solidarity with “Operasyon Bra Kwaze”, or in English, “Operation Arms Crossed.”
The strike began Friday 5/19/17 in the capital, Port Au Prince, and spread quickly. Strikes and demonstrations are taking place in the north and south of Haiti in four main cities – Port Au Prince, Carrefour, Ounaminthe and Caracol.
These workers receive the lowest wage in the western hemisphere. Garment workers live in debt, hunger and on the brink of homelessness, despite working 12-16 hour days.
Meanwhile factory owners/manufacturers like the Apaid family, Alain Villard, Charles Baker, H&H Textiles, Sae-A and Grupo M, along with brands like Hanes, Gildan, Fruit of the Loom, Gap, and Walmart rake in billions of dollars in profit.
Garment workers have said, “Enough!” When you are drowning in debt; when there is not enough money for rent or food; when the company you work for is stealing your wages; there is only one option – STAND UP & FIGHT BACK.
Now the factory owners and the government are attacking workers for fighting for their basic rights.
HERE ARE THE MOST RECENT UPDATES from organizers with SOTA, SOKOWA & SOVAGH:
PORT AU PRINCE – SOTA-BO UNION – SONAPI Industrial Park + factories outside the industrial park
Tues 5/23/17 – Workers left the streets and returned to work, but many participated in work stoppages in their factories. Haiti National Police riot division, CIMO, attacked workers in the SONAPI Industrial Park, with workers fleeing. Many workers had their phones stolen or destroyed by the police, because they were trying to document the attack. Factory owners do not want us to see their attacks on workers.
Thurs 5/25/17 – RRN receives reports that Premium Apparel factory, owned by the powerful Apaid family, has become a sort of central command for repression. There is a police occupation of the factory. Workers say the factory now resembles a military compound. Below are photos of the nearly empty factory floor at Premium Apparel. Premium Apparel Factory, nearly empty.
Thurs 5/25/17 – Workers commit to “Operasyon Bra Kwaze,” or “Operation Arms Crossed,” meaning they will not back down. The RRN stands with them.
Thurs 5/25/17 – In the video below, workers demand that the police give back the phones they stole from them.
Thurs 5/25/17 – SOTA-BO shares schedule of mobilization for the coming days:
May 26 – March
May 27 – STRIKE
May 28 – rest
May 29 – March
May 30 – March
Fri 5/26/17 – RRN received word from Haiti that The National Police declared all marches blocking the road to the airport a matter of National Security. The Batay Ouvriye Workers Center, SONAPI Industrial Park, and Sewing Inernational, SA (SISA) factory all are located on this road – Boulevard Toussaint Louverture.
Fri 5/26/17 – RRN receives a translation of an official Notice sent out on 5/22/17 from the Ministry of Justice and Public Security commending the Haitian National Police for their efforts and encouraging them to block mobilizations by any means necessary.
CARREFOUR – SOTA-BO UNION – Palm Apparel, H&H Textiles and other factories
Tues 5/23/17 – RRN receives reports that workers at Palm Apparel, owned by Alain Villard were under attack by CIMO division of the Haiti National police also.
Fri 5/26/17 – RRN receives report of a possible confrontation between workers and police. We are awaiting confirmation, and if there any victims.
OUNAMINTHE – SOKOWA UNION – Codevi Free Trade Zone
Thurs 5/25/17 – workers at Codevi Free Trade Zone, owned and operated by Grupo M & Fernando Capellan, did a work stoppage. They went into the factory, but sat at their stations and did not sew.
Thurs 5/25/17 – RRN receives the below video from a street demonstration where workers are singing, “Go tell Jovenel we need the 800 Gourdes!” Jovenel Moise is the current president of Haiti.
CARACOL – SOVAGH UNION – Caracol Industrial Park
Thurs 5/25/17 – workers at Sae-A factory, in the Caracol Industrial Park, also did a work stoppage. They went into the factory, but sat at their stations and did not sew.
Thurs 5/25/17 – workers at Caracol Industrial Park are shot with rubber bullets by the police.
Thank you for the pressure you have put on factory owners, government and regulatory agencies!
PLEASE DON’T STOP. LET’S INCREASE THE PRESSURE.
Factory owners and the government are likely to double down their repression against workers. Let’s let them know the world is watching!
Christian Capellan – works for Grupo M
Email – ccapellan@grupom.com.do Twitter – @ccapellan1 – https://twitter.com/ccapellan1?lang=en
Last, please make a financial contribution to help these workers continue their fight.
The act of striking is incredibly brave. It requires a serious sacrifice, and a level of cooperation and care for their collective interest. Striking means no wages. It means hungry families, no money for transit, for school, or for the market. It means the rent will not be paid and the possibility of homelessness. And yet, the textile workers continue on… because they recognize that the only path to justice is through their collective fight. It’s their only alternative to starvation wages and further exploitation.
Workers are determined to continue with the ongoing strikes. They are fierce and brave, but they are also hungry, and funds to continue the strike are low.
Let’s stand with them!
We must not passively accept the presence of products on store shelves without understanding—and actively opposing—the harsh conditions of exploitation and repression under which they are produced.
Skip a few cups of coffee out and donate that money to Haitian garment workers.
Thursday – 5/25/17 – Haitian garment workers continue a country-wide strike and mobilization to demand an increased minimum wage.
TODAY, at the request of striking workers, the RRN asks you to continue the pressure on factory owners in the south – Port Au Prince & Carrefour – AND to focus your solidarity efforts on a region in the north of Haiti – Caracol.
At 9:17am, Thursday 5/25/17, RRN received reports of garment workers in Caracol being shot at with rubber bullets by police.
Again, this violence comes to workers who are fighting for the most basic rights – a decent pay so that they can afford to pay rent, to buy food, and to transport themselves to work.
Below is some information to help you understand the situation in Caracol, followed by a new list of organizations to contact to voice our solidarity with workers fighting exploitation and demanding a fair wage.
Below the contact list are:
Sample email, social media posts that you can copy and paste, and insert appropriate info.
Some perspective from the workers about boycotting and ethical consumption/conscious consumerism.
Please also make a financial contribution of $50, or any amount, to help fund this and future strikes. Donations are sent directly to Haiti and utilized by SOTA-BO, SOKOWA & SOVAGH to print leaflets, transport workers & organizers, and to feed striking workers.
RRN is not a 501(c)3, so donations are not tax-deductible… but they are a good way to exercise your conscience.
Caracol lies in the north of Haiti,on the coast. The region has traditionally been devoted to local and subsistence agriculture because it holds some of the richest farmlands in the country. Caracol Bay is home to rich estuaries, delicate reefs, and incredible bio-diversity. Since 2012, Caracol has also been home to the Caracol Industrial Park.
Caracol Industrial Park is Haiti’s most recently constructed industrial park was a post earthquake joint project among the Haitian government, the US State Department, and the Inter-American Development Bank. The deal was brokered by the Clinton Foundation in a claimed effort to create jobs and to grow the Haitian economy.
Haiti’s export-based economy is bound to cheap labor, with the lowest wages in the western hemisphere. Foreign companies pay no taxes. Protective tariffs do not exist. Additionally, the U.S. lifted tariffs on goods shipped from Haiti to U.S. through 2020 (HOPE II and HELP Acts). According to State Department cables exposed by Wikileaks, the US Embassy and USAID worked with contractors for Fruit of the Loom, Hanes and Levi Strauss to keep wages low. In this climate, foreign investors profit, while no revenue is created for social programs like healthcare or education.
The 600-acre industrial park was built atop some of Haiti’s most fertile farmland. Over 300 farmers were evicted from this land, made jobless and homeless, as most factories only hire workers under a certain age.
SAE-A, a South Korean manufacturing company, is the anchor tenant of the Caracol Industrial Park. They produce for companies like Gap, Target and Walmart. Their company slogan is, “A World of Hope with Every Stitch,” and the company’s chairman, Woong-Ki Kim claims, “We make protecting and promoting workers’ rights and well-being our mission. It is something of great personal importance to me and I have ensured that our commitment extends into every facet of our operations. We establish exemplary labor-management relations based on mutual trust with our associates.” (link to website – from the chairman)
“In 2012 Worker Rights Consortium reported, Sae-A’s Guatemala managers were accused of stifling union workers and mistreating female employees. The New York Times reported in 2012 that, before sealing the deal in Haiti, the AFL-CIO sent a detailed memo to American and international officials describing ‘acts of violence and intimidation’ and declaring the company ‘one of the major labor violators.
In April, Better Work Haiti published a report finding the factory was noncompliant in the areas of sexual harassment, bullying and humiliation of employees. Yannick Etienne, an organizer with Batay Ouvriiye, told ABC News she received reports from SAE-A workers that they had to provide sexual favors to supervisors in order to obtain jobs in the factory.”
SOVAGH is the textile union in the Caracol Industrial Park, affiliated with Batay Ouvriye (Workers Fight), an independent Haitian workers’ movement. The acronym SOVAGH roughly translates to the Textile Union of Valiant Workers.
SOVAGH workers have been part of the country-wide mobilizations and strike with the same demands as garment workers in Port Au Prince, Carrefour and Ounaminthe:
A minimum wage adjustment to 350 to 800 Gourdes daily (from $5.50 to $12.60 per day), on top of meal, transportation and housing subsidies
Workers are demanding Social Services.
They demand that production quotas do not increase with the increased minimum wage.
Let’s stand with these valiant workers, fighting for basic rights!
Earlier this week, workers making these same demands were violently attacked in Port Au Prince and Carrefour (southern region of Haiti).
Tell, Sae-A to respect workers rights and to pay them a decent wage – 800 Gourdes!
Tell the investors of the Caracol Industrial Park that their project is a failure and they need to make good on their claims of growing the Haitian economy by encouraging the Haitian state and manufacturers to pay workers a living wage – 800 Gourdes!
Below is contact info – contact forms, emails, Twitter handles, Facebook profiles – for some of the entities involved in the Caracol Industrial Park.
LET’S FLOOD THEM WITH SUPPORT FOR HAITIAN GARMENT WORKERS!
We will not stand for this exploitation of workers.
(You can copy & paste this message into the Sae-A contact email form):
I am emailing in support of Haitian garment workers striking in Caracol Industrial Park.
STOP ATTACKING WORKERS!
I insist on the following:
Pay workers 800 Gourdes minimum wage & provide social services.
Respect workers’ right to organize.
Do NOT increase the production quota.
Stop the harassment and repression against workers!
(You can copy & paste this message into the US AID contact email form):
I am emailing in support of Haitian garment workers striking in Caracol, Ounaminthe, Carrefour & Port Au Prince.
If USAID genuinely wishes to “aid” the Haitian people and their economy then you should ensure they are paid a decent minimum wage!
I insist on the following:
Pay workers 800 Gourdes minimum wage & provide social services.
Respect workers’ right to organize.
Do NOT increase the production quota.
Stop the harassment and repression against workers!
(You can copy & paste this message into the US AID contact email form. Select Clinton Foundation in Haiti for the “topic”):
I am emailing in support of Haitian garment workers striking in Caracol, Ounaminthe, Carrefour & Port Au Prince.
If the Clinton Foundation genuinely wishes to “aid” the Haitian people and their economy then you should ensure they are paid a decent minimum wage!
I insist on the following:
Pay workers 800 Gourdes minimum wage & provide social services.
Respect workers’ right to organize.
Do NOT increase the production quota.
Stop the harassment and repression against workers!
SAMPLE EMAIL: (copy & paste to appropriate fields)
To: vacotto@ilo.org; laventure@ilo.org; laventure@ilo.org; bureaumediationsecteurtextile@gmail.com;
francois@betterwork.org; marie-louise.russo@adih.ht
cc: batayouvriye@hotmail.com
Subject: RESPECT WORKERS. PAY 800 GOURDES.
I am emailing in support of Haitian garment workers in Caracol, Ounaminthe, Port Au Prince, and Carrefour.
STOP ATTACKING WORKERS!
I stand with the workers who are bravely striking and demonstrating for their rights.
Factory owners and the brands they produce for make millions, sometimes billions of dollars in profit by exploiting these workers. They are within their rights to organize and demand decent pay to house, feed, clothe and educate themselves.
I insist on the following:
Pay workers 800 Gourdes minimum wage & provide social services.
Respect workers’ right to organize.
Stop the harassment and repression against workers!
SOKOWA – textile trade union, affiliated with Batay Ouvriye, in Ouanaminthe, Haiti, mostly in the CODEVI Free Trade Zone.
SOVAGH – textile trade union, affiliated with Batay Ouvriye, in Caracol Haiti, mostly in the Caracol Industrail Park.
PLASIT-BO – a coalition of the three above textile trade unions affiliated with Batay Ouvriye. They coordinate struggles among the different regions.
Batay Ouvriye – an independent Haitian workers’ movement. They organize textile workers, peasants in the countryside, and neighborhood associations.
CIMO – riot police branch of the Haiti National Police force.
Ministry of Social Affairs – state entity that deals with labor issues and often engages in negotiations between factory owners and unions. They are basically in the pockets of factory owners.
ADIH – Association of Industries of Haiti comprised of factory owners and other industry heads who work to make sure that wages stay low and exploitative conditions remain to attract business to their factories. They function to increase profits for factory owners.
Better Work Haiti – a partnership between the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC). The publish useful reports about the conditions of workers, wages, etc, but are basically ornamental.
—————
ON BOYCOTTING and ETHICAL CONSUMPTION:
Many folks ask, “What are the brands we should boycott?” Rather than boycotting, the RRN advocates directly engaging in pressure campaigns that voice the demands of workers, producing for brands. Haitian garment workers let us know that they want these jobs. They need them. But, they want them with dignity and a fair wage.
(We have pressured brands like Gildan, Hanes, Levi’s, Fruit of the Loom, and more. We’ll keep you posted about this for this current campaign).
The reality is that no matter what brand you choose to buy, from clothing to food, every good is tied into the global economy and is linked, at some point in the production process, to exploitation. There are no guilt-free products. Rather than scour the internet for “consciously produced” products, our efforts are most effective to stand behind the people who produce the goods we consume, the people fighting exploitation daily. We are not just passive consumers. We are people with a conscience. Let’s exercise our consciousness by amplifying the fight against exploitation!
Feel free to email us if you’d like more info about RRN, these ideas, or other ways to get involved: RRNsolidarity@gmail.com
————-
Please also make a financial contribution of $50, or any amount, to help fund this and future strikes. Donations are sent directly to Haiti and utilized by SOTA-BO, SOKOWA & SOVAGH to print leaflets, transport workers & organizers, and to feed striking workers.
RRN is not a 501(c)3, so donations are not tax-deductible… but they are a good way to exercise your conscience.
Premium Apparel Factory, nearly empty.
