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The Institute for Justice
and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) and its
Haiti-based partner Bureau des Avocats
Internationaux (BAI) have released a report
outlining recent cases of persecution of
organized workers in Haiti as well as Haitian
government complicity in allowing illegal
attacks against, and terminations of labor
activists to occur without judicial
consequences. The
report,
titled “Haitian labor movement struggles as
workers face increased anti-union persecution
and wage suppression,” documents attacks and
firings of union organizers by both public and
private sector companies.
In mid-December
of 2013, garment workers staged a walkout and
demonstrations to protest the
low wages and subpar
working conditions in Haiti’s garment
factories. As Better Work Haiti revealed in its
2013 Biannual Review
of Haitian garment companies’ compliance with
labor standards, only 25% of workers receive the
minimum daily wage of 300 Haitian gourdes
(equivalent to $6.81). They also found a 91%
non-compliance rate with basic worker protection
norms. The BAI/IJDH report explains that on the
third day of the December protests, “the
Association of Haitian Industries locked out the
workers, claiming they had to shut the factories
for the security of their employees.” In late
December and January, IJDH/BAI documented “at
least 36 terminations in seven factories
throughout December and January in retaliation
for the two-day protest, mostly of union
representatives. The terminations continue.”
The report
notes that union leaders at Electricity of Haiti
(EDH) - Haiti’s biggest state-run enterprise –
have also been illegally terminated and even
physically attacked. As BAI/IJDH describe: “On
January 10, 2014, the leaders of SECEdH [Union
of Employees of l’EDH] held a press conference
at EDH, as they had countless times over the
last several years. The purpose of the January
10 press conference was to allege mismanagement
and corruption at EDH. At the last minute, EDH
management refused to let journalists in the
building, although they had given permission for
the press conference the day before. SECEdH’s
leaders joined journalists on the street outside
EDH’s parking lot gate to convene the press
conference. EDH security guards pushed down the
metal gate onto the crowd, hitting SECEdH’s
treasurer in the head and knocking him
unconscious. The security guards stood by while
the employee lay on the ground bleeding and
witnesses urged them to help. Some journalists
took the injured employee to the hospital in one
of their vehicles. He was released from the
hospital but suffers constant pain in his head,
shoulders, arms, and back from the heavy gate
falling on him.”
The following
week, SECEdH’s executive committee, including
the injured officer, received letters of
termination dated Jan. 10, 2014.
The report goes
on to describe government complicity with
employer infractions of labor laws at the level
of the judicial system, where “public and
private employers enjoy impunity” and where
workers continue to have extremely limited
access to the justice system as “court fees and
lawyers are too expensive for the poor to
afford” and “proceedings are conducted in
French, which most Haitians do not speak.”
Moreover, the Labor Ministry as well as the
Tripartite Commission for the Implementation of
the HOPE agreement (which mandates garment
factory compliance with international labor
standards and Haitian labor law) have
“backpedaled on the 2009 minimum wage law and
issued public statements that support factory
owners’ interpretations and non-compliance with
the piece rate wage.” The reports suggests that
part of this backpedaling may be caused by
President Michel Martelly’s efforts to promote
increased international investment in Haitian
sweatshops: “Making Haiti ‘open for business’
was a core piece of President Michel Martelly’s
election platform that has won him political and
economic support from the U.S. government,
despite low voter turnout and flawed elections
in 2010 and 2011. Part of the Martelly
administration’s strategy to attract foreign
investment has been to keep wages low so that
Haiti can be competitive with the global
low-wage market. Haiti has the third lowest
monthly wages in the apparel industry,
surpassing only Cambodia and Bangladesh. This
U.S.-backed ‘sweat shop’ economic model is
similar to the model in the 1970s and 1980s
under former dictator Jean-Claude 'Baby Doc'
Duvalier.”
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