Monday – July 31, 2017 – Haitian garment workers planned to take the streets again today to demand 800 Gourdes/day (US$12.82) minimum wage. But, they encountered heavy police presence at the Sonapi Industrial Park in Port Au Prince. The police are blocking the gates to the industrial park, locking workers inside the gates of the park.
Mon 07.31.17 – Port Au Prince – Police block the entrance of Sonapi Industrial Park.
SOTA-BO textile union planned to protest today and all this week in response to Haitian President, Jovenel Moise’s bogus wage proposal.
Last week, the president sent a letter to the Supreme Council on Salaries (CSS) – the entity tasked with making a salary recommendation. In the letter, he said the council needed to come up with a wage that would allow workers to live. Previously, the council proposed a wage of 335 Gourdes, an insult to workers.
The CSS, comprised of representatives of factory owners, the state and labor then lobbed this responsibility to the president. They called on him to make a recommendation to avoid upsetting factory owners, as the council is a farce. They consistently represent factory owners interests.
Friday, July 28, 2017 – The RRN received word that President Jovenel Moise proposed a wage of 350 Gourdes – yet another insult to workers.
Workers have made their position clear – 800 Gourdes. This demand is actually a concession, if one looks at what is actually needed for a worker and their family to survive. 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. The cost of living has only increased since then.
We are waiting for next steps from workers.
We will be in touch soon with ways to support and help continue the fight.
Thank you so much for all your solidarity, thus far.
The struggle continues!
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.
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.
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.
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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
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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.
