5355: COINTREAU WORKERS' UNION IN HAITI (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: radman <resist@best.com>
From: Tttnhm@aol.com

URGENT APPEAL ON BEHALF OF THE COINTREAU WORKERS' UNION IN HAITI - SENT BY
THE HAITI SUPPORT GROUP

Check out the Cointreau web site, and read how the subtle harmony of
bitter and sweet oranges makes every sip of Cointreau an extraordinary,
multi-sensory taste journey.  Read how they grow bitter oranges in the
Caribbean, how the peel is separated from the pulp by hand, dried in the
sun, and then shipped to the Cointreau distillery in Angers, France. Once
distilled, the liquid is blended with water and alcohol using a secret
recipe - unchanged for almost 150 years.

What the web site won't tell you is that the workers in Haiti who so
carefully separate the peel from the pulp must endure pay and conditions
that are also unchanged in almost 150 years.

At the Cointreau plant in the north of Haiti, men and women labour all day
to make the minimum wage of 36 gourdes - a pitiful amount that represents
just $1.25! The factory is in a squalid condition - toilets and showers
are disgusting. Working without gloves or protective clothing, the workers
are soaked in the orange spray and inhale the citric acid vapor -
fingernails are corroded away, and lung complications are common.

In the financial year 1999-2000, the parent company, Rémy Cointreau
recorded a net operating profit of 55 million Euros (US$61 million), a
163% increase compared with the previous year. The Company employs around
3,700 people worldwide. Each year, some 13 million bottles of Cointreau
are sold. The chairperson of Rémy Cointreau, Dominique Hériard Dubreuil,
is ranked 5th in the Fortune list of the 50 most powerful women in
business in the world.

At the Cointreau plant in Haiti, the workers have formed a union to press
for basic rights, such as respect for the law in relation to the Labour
Code, negotiations regarding a wage increase, and recognition of the union
and the principle of collective bargaining. But Cointreau's Haitian
managers are refusing to even enter negotiations with the union.

Following the success of the 1999-2000 solidarity action on behalf of
workers at the Grand Marnier plantation near Cap-Haitien in which Batay
Ouvriye (Workers' Struggle) enlisted the support of the British solidarity
organisation, the Haiti Support Group, and the French Reseau-Solidarité
(Solidarity Network), a similar mobilisation is now planned.

Please respond to the Haitian Union of Cointreau Workers' appeal for help
by writing to Dominique Hériard Dubreuil, chairperson of Rémy Cointreau.

Please note that the Cointreau workers' Union has not raised the issue of
a threatened consumer boycott of Rémy Cointreau products. Therefore,
please do not mention this in your letter. Just ask Rémy Cointreau to
instruct its managers to recognise the Union's right to begin
negotiations, and express your hope that meaningful negotiations regarding
the Unions' demands will start immediately.

Write to :
Dominique Hériard Dubreuil
Rémy Cointreau
152, avenue des Champs-Élysées,
75008 Paris
FRANCE

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This email is forwarded to you as a service of the Haiti Support Group:
<haitisupport@gn.apc.org>

The Haiti Support Group - - solidarity with the Haitian people's struggle
for justice, participatory democracy and equitable development, since 1992.