#3132: Grand Marnier workers - appeal #2 (fwd)

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From: Charles Arthur <charlesarthur@hotmail.com>

>From : The Haiti Support Group, London, UK

Please read the text below and send the letter (at the foot of this mail) or 
something like it to the Marnier-Lapostelle management, and send an email to 
<haitisupport@gn.apc.org> to let us know you have done so.
Thanks

Charles Arthur

GRAND MARNIER WORKERS IN A HAITI

SOLIDARITY APPEAL #2 - JANUARY 2000

The UNION of MARNIER-LAPOSTELLE WORKERS (Le Syndicat des Ouvriers de
Marnier-Lapostelle - Haiti) calls for international solidarity to support 
its efforts to negotiate improvements in pay and conditions at the orange 
tree plantation in northern Haiti. (see model letter below)

In August 1999, the plantation workers formed a union, registered with the 
Haitian Ministry of Social Affairs, in order to take up their grievances 
with Novella's Daniel Zephir, who manages the plantation on behalf of the 
Paris-based company, Marnier-Lapostelle. Initially some progress appeared to 
be made when Zephir agreed to implement some improvements in conditions in 
time for next summer's harvest. However, he was less forthcoming when the 
union raised the issue of wage increases, claiming that Marnier-Lapostelle 
in Paris decided the salary costs.

The Union of Marnier-Lapostelle Workers then made contact with one of the 
French company's technicians when he visited the plantation in November, and 
gave him a letter for the company bosses in which they appealed for some 
movement on wages. However, since then, relations between Zephir and the 
union have deteriorated, with union members being victimised and intimidated 
by the plantation directors and supervisors.

At the end of December 1999, after five sets of talks with Zephir, the union 
decided to break off negotiations. Zephir had made what the workers regarded 
as derisory wage increases. All he offered was just a few cents more for 
each box of oranges - an increase that in no way keeps pace with the 
spiralling cost of living in Haiti.

STATE OF PLAY ON PAY

Current rate of pay        Union's demand         Zephir's final offer

Day labourer
   52 gourdes per day         100 gourdes              70 gourdes
Orange picker
   4.10 gourdes per box         7 gourdes             5.50 gourdes
Orange peeler
   14 gourdes per box          25 gourdes               17 gourdes
Orange grater
   19.25 gourdes per box       35 gourdes               21 gourdes

Note 1: there are currently approximately 19 gourdes to the US dollar.

Note 2:The number of boxes that each worker or pair of workers can fill up, 
or empty, depending on the task, each day is determined by how many hours 
they are prepared to work. Often workers start before dawn and only stop 
when night is falling. Each day an orange picker could fill perhaps 10 or 12 
twelve boxes, and the orange peelers and graters could empty perhaps three 
or four boxes.

Zephir had also insulted the workers by proposing that the orange pickers, 
who at present work in pairs and are both paid the going rate for the number 
of boxes picked, should in future work alone yet continue to be paid by the 
box at close to the existing rate. Obviously the number of boxes they will 
be able to fill by themselves will be about half the number they could fill 
working in pairs!

BACKGROUND
"A bottle of Grand Marnier Cordon Rouge is sold every two seconds...", 
boasts the Marnier-Lapostelle company web site. "Spiked with oranges from 
the French West Indies", runs the advertising slogan on the poster. For the 
1999-2000 advertising campaign, a photograph shows a woman looking up 
seductively, clutching a bottle of the famous cognac-based orange liqueur, 
and a caption that reads, "Ever tried it in the afternoon?"

Ever tried walking miles to do a 12 hour day clearing drainage ditches in an 
orange plantation to earn less than US$3? Ever tried scraping the peel from 
oranges, cutting your fingers, and feeling the orange juice seep into the 
wound, over and over again, day after day, and earning just one dollar for 
each completed box of oranges?

The French drinks company, Marnier-Lapostelle, recorded a net income of 
around US$16 million in 1998 - a huge amount that makes the plight of the 
Haitian workers who produce the orange peel for export to France all the 
more outrageous.

On a 72-hectare plantation, run by the local Haitian firm, Novella
Entreprises, on behalf of Marnier-Lapostelle, day-labourers work in the 
orange groves, planting trees and keeping irrigation channels clear. Other 
workers pick, peel and grate the oranges, to produce the dried peel that is 
shipped to France where it is added to brandy to create the distinctive 
Grand Marnier taste.

According to Batay Ouvriye, a Haitian organisation that defends workers' 
interests, the workers on the Marnier-Lapostelle plantation are paid a 
pittance - the day labourers are paid just 52 gourdes (a little less than 
US$3) a day, while the orange pickers are paid on the basis of how many 
cases they fill per day, and must work flat out for sometimes a 12 hour day 
if they are to fill enough to earn anything approaching a living wage. The 
same is true for those who peel and grate the rind.

The plantation lacks even the most basic toilet or washing facilities, 
creating special problems for the orange peelers and graters who often cut 
their hands and suffer painful irritation when the citric acid juice gets 
into their wounds. Constant exposure to the acidic spray also causes 
respiratory and digestive problems. None of the workers can claim the sick 
leave nor the annual holidays that are specified by Haitian labour law.

SOLIDARITY ACTION

At the beginning of December 1999, Batay Ouvriye publicised the union's 
first appeal  for letters of support to be sent to Daniel Zephir of Novella 
Entreprises in Haiti and to the Marnier-Lapostelle management in Paris. The 
union asked that Marnier-Lapostelle intervene with Zephir to authorise a 
proper wage increase. The Haiti Support Group forwarded the appeal to 
various email networks, and many individuals and organisations, including 
two South African trade unions, wrote letters. However, neither the 
Marnier-Lapostelle management in Paris nor Daniel Zephir have so far issued 
any comment or sent any replies.

Now (January), the union has released a second appeal for international 
solidarity in the form of letters to the management. The union is not 
calling for a boycott, or even for a threat of a boycott of Marnier 
products, but hopes that the French company will feel the negative publicity 
is more costly than a meagre pay increase for the Haitian workers.

MODEL LETTER

M. Maxime Coury
Marnier-Lapostelle
91 Boulevard Haussmann
75008 PARIS
FRANCE
or
The Director
Marnier-Lapostelle Inc.
717 Fifth Avenue
New York
NY 10022
USA
Fax: 212 207 4351


Dear M. Coury,

I understand that the Union of Marnier-Lapostelle Workers in Haiti has 
recently felt obliged to break off negotiations with your representative, M. 
Daniel Zephir, after he made derisory offers in response to the union's pay 
demands.

I am very disappointed that these negotiations appear to have been sabotaged 
by your representative's unreasonable offers. I am also dismayed to hear 
that the union delegates have received threats and been intimidated by 
agents of your representative at the plantation.

I hope that you will intervene to ensure that the union and its delegates 
are treated properly, and that serious negotiations on pay increases to keep 
pace with the spiralling cost of living are resumed at the earliest 
opportunity.

I would very much appreciate a reply from you informing me of positive 
developments at the Marnier-Lapostelle orange plantation in Haiti.

Yours sincerely
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