Last week, the RRN reported that National Police shot at workers with real bullets to break up a small protest at Fairway Apparel textile factory in Port Au Prince, Haiti. Three workers were severely injured. Many were hurt, including a pregnant woman. A representative of Batay Ouvriye was beaten.
Workers were protesting an increased production quota, imposed by management, when the police opened fire. Fairway management fired 13 workers who were all union members. Fellow workers stopped work to protest the firing of the union members and called on the RRN to stand in solidarity.
Work stoppage inside Fairway Apparel factory.
Then, Fairway felt our pressure!
Thank you so much for responding to workers’ request to pressure Liu Chunmou, Director of Fairway Apparel.
Thanks in part to your emails, all thirteen workers were re-hired. Fairway is also paying for the medical care of all the workers who were shot and injured. As far as we know, there were no deaths.
Thank you again for your ongoing solidarity!
It is amazing to see the map light up with support from around the world for this monumental fight.
Workers have been fighting since May for a minimum wage adjustment of 800 Gourdes/day (US$12.80).
Now, even the Haitian Senate is taking the side of workers.
The struggle continues! Workers will continue to mobilize this week and next for 800 Gourdes!
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.
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.
Saturday, 07.15.17 – Port Au Prince, Haiti – National Police shot at workers with real bullets to break up a small protest at Fairway Apparel textile factory.
Three workers were severely injured. Many were hurt, including a pregnant woman. A representative of Batay Ouvriye was beaten.
Workers were protesting an increased production quota, imposed by management, when the police opened fire.
In the video below, workers confront management and the police in the office of Fairway Apparel.
This is a photo of one of the police officers who opened fire on the workers.
Monday, 07.17.17 – Workers showed up to find Fairway Apparel closed for Monday 7/17 and 7/18. In the video below, the woman says, “This is the picture of the many people who cannot enter the work place.”
The memo pictured below says that the factory will be closed Monday, 7/17/17 and Tuesday, 7/18/17 due to a “perturbation” that took place on Saturday, 7/15/17.
Garment workers, organized as unions, have been striking and mobilizing since May 19 for a minimum wage adjustment of 800 Gourdes (US$12.80); meal, transportation and housing subsidies; social services; and a stop to increased production quotas.
Tuesday, 07.18.17 – Fairway management fired 13 workers. They are all union members. 7 of these workers are from SOTA-BO. The below letter states that the workers were fired for inciting workers, implementing an illegal strike, for being violent, and for using their cell phones. But, who was shot?
We know the real reason for these firings is union-busting and a complete lack of respect for workers. Factory owners see and treat workers as slave labor, not as humans.
Since May 19, garment workers have been striking and mobilizing for:
A minimum wage adjustment of 800 Gourdes (US$12.80) per day, on top of meal, transportation and housing subsidies
Social Services.
A stop to increased production quotas.
Now, workers at Fairway are standing in solidarity. They refuse to work until the fired union members are reinstated.
Work stoppage inside Fairway Apparel factory.
TODAY, please stand with these Fairway workers in solidarity.
Workers are asking that we flood the email inbox of Liu Chunmou, Director of Fairway Apparel.
Below is an email you can copy and paste.
Send it as many times as you can, from all your different email accounts.
Please consider making a donation to help workers continue their efforts.
Organizers in Haiti tell us there are two major reasons that the Haitian state, factory owners, and major brands really do not care about workers’ interests:
Cheap labor is how they are able to accumulate their profit. They will not let go of this without a fierce fight.
They do not need Haitian workers as consumers, so they are not concerned with paying them enough to buy goods. They are only viewed as cheap labor. They are also viewed as replaceable when there are thousands of unemployed people in Haiti, desperate for work.
This is why the work of Batay Ouvriye, and their affiliated textile unions – SOTA-BO, SOKOWA & SOVAGH – is so important. They are organizing a movement of people – workers, peasants, neighborhoods – who are pushing back against these attempts to exploit the Haitian people. They are growing the idea among Haitians that they only way forward is through collective struggle for a better Haiti.
Port au Prince, Haiti – Monday, 07.10.17 – This morning, garment workers were met by national police in full force, both inside and outside, the Sonapi Industrial Park. Workers scheduled to gather at Sonapi before taking the streets again today, to march for a minimum wage adjustment of 800 Gourdes (US$12.80).
07.10.17 – National Police outside SONAPI Industrial Park
Last week, in a press conference, the workers announced, “We won’t take anything lower than HTG800 (US$12.80)… We gave them an ultimatum of this Friday [07.07.17] to make their proposal.”
“Them,” references the Haitian State Salary Council, or CSS. It’s comprised of a representative 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.
On Friday, 07.07.17, the RRN received a photo of the CSS proposal for wage increases. They offered the workers 335 Gourdes. The existing starvation wage is 300 Gourdes.
This offer is an insult to the workers.
“If you spend HTG150 of your salary on food and HTG75 on transport, what do you have left to live with?” asked Batay Ouvriye representative, Yannick Etienne, in last week’s press conference.
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 demanding less than what is said they actually need to survive.
With this morning’s massive police presence, factory owners and the Haitian state have made clear that they value the profits of slave labor far too much to pay a decent wage to workers. Rather than negotiate, they use the police to repress workers.
We are waiting to see how this situation plays out, and to hear from the workers how they’d like us to proceed.
Please be ready to take action.
In the video below, workers hand out leaflets for today’s march, singing, “Nou vale ouit san gourd!” We are worth 800 gourd. We deserve 800 gourd.
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.
The workers have said they will not stop until they receive 800 Gourdes. Let’s join them in their resolve.
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.
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.
