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.
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.
