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6209: Re: 6207 - Marnier workers' pay (fwd)
From: Charles Arthur <charlesarthur@hotmail.com>
Re: 6207 - Marnier workers' pay
Keywords: unions, pay, Grand Marnier, oranges
The confusion in the Morning Star article arises from the fact that there
are a variety of workers with a variety of pay regimes employed by the
Novella company on behalf of Marnier-Lapostelle. There are day laborers who
are paid by the day, and there are orange pickers, cutters and peelers who
are paid according to the number of cases of oranges that they either fill
or empty each day.
I paste below the details of the pay increases agreed by the Union of
Marnier-Lapostelle Workers and the Novella company, run by Daniel Zephir,
after a final round of negotiations regarding salaries was held at the
Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor office on July 25th. Both parties
concluded on these terms:
Day laborers: Will earn 95 gourdes per day, ($US 4.75). This constitutes a
55% raise over the miserable 52 gourdes they were earning previously. The
difficult process of arriving at this arrangement went through the following
steps: from 70 gourdes to 75 gourdes, to 86 gourdes and finally 95 gourdes?!
At long last (after three hours of discussions!!) Zephir begged the workers
to concede the remaining 5 gourdes of their initial demands. However, it is
important to note that only a small number of workers are daily wage earners
on the plantation. Most of them are working on a piece rate basis such as
the orange pickers, cutters and peelers.
(note: to make any sense of the pay rates you need to know that each full
case of oranges contains approximately 150 oranges, and that orange cutters,
for example, can only complete about 4 or 5 cases during one day.)
Orange Pickers: Each two-person team - one up the tree, the other
underneath, will earn 7.25 gourdes per case, a 57% raise over their previous
4.10 G. This negotiation lasted almost as long as the previous one. And
shocking as it is, Zephir begged the workers to accept a reduction of 0.25
gourdes from their initial demands.
Orange Cutters: Grand Marnier accepted this groups? initial demand as
presented, (i.e. 25 gourdes per case). This implies that a 2-worker-team
completing 5 cases a day will earn 125 gourdes or 62.5 gourdes each.
Orange Peelers: Due to the length of this negotiation talks, it was agreed
that more discussions about specific wages will be done after the opening of
the coming working season.
The Union notes that their salary demands dated back nearly one year ago.
And the yearly inflation rate was up from 12 to 15%, eating away further
their purchasing power. Their demand was merely a small wage adjustment, not
a salary hike.
To put the pay in clearer perspective, consider these prices - provided by
Batay Ouvriye earlier this year (certainly already out of date): a stick of
bread: 5 gourdes; a short ride on public transport: 2.5 gourdes, a basic
meal (rice and beans, without meat, vegetables or salad) purchased in the
street: 15 gourdes, minimum; a soft drink: 6 gourdes; a beer: 20 gourdes.
Also consider the fact that the Marnier workers are laid off for between 3
to 6 months every year when no work takes place. They do not know when the
new season will start again - this is decided by the management who puts the
word out that work will resume at short notice. Therefore, workers cannot
take other employment during the 'dead season'. During these months, they
are unemployed and unpaid.
************************************************************************
Details of the continuing struggle for improvements in pay and conditions at
the Cointreau plantation and processing plant can be found at
http://www.gn.apc.org/haitisupport/fea_campaign_index.html
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The Haiti Support Group - solidarity with the Haitian people's struggle for
justice, participatory democracy and equitable development, since 1992.
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