13599: Arthur forwards article entitled "Haiti's Bitter Fruits" from UK magazine (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Tttnhm@aol.com

GREEN EVENTS (LONDON) magazine
ISSUE OF NOVEMBER 2002

Haiti's Bitter Fruits
http://www.greenevents.fsnet.co.uk/art081.html

After centuries of dictatorships, Haiti should be on the verge of reaching
democracy - but, it is being held back by multinational companies, who
exploit the poverty and weaknesses in the democratic processes. Julius
Bergemann investigates Haiti's struggle...


The arrival of April beckons the end of the Haitian orange season for the
various pickers, cutters and graters responsible for turning the island's
bitter oranges into flavourings for the international food and beverage
industries. The end of the 2002 season has additionally, brought a rise in
tension and hostilities between the rival factions in an increasingly
acrimonious dispute; a dispute centred, locally, on workers rights, but which
extends to the problems of defending human rights in the developing world,
and the responsibilities of global business to those who help maintain their
profits.

Haiti is a poor country stuttering on its way to democracy after nearly two
centuries of dictatorships and imposed foreign governments. Though a
semblance of democracy was obtained with elections in 1990, further coups and
accusations of electoral malpractice have seen the democratic progress grind
to an effective halt. As democracy has faltered so has economic growth and
stability. Haiti does however have economically important exports; factories
produce clothes for foreign markets, coffee and mangoes bring in hard
currency, spice and flavourings are sent worldwide. But where poverty and
desperation lurk, exploitation and abuse are rarely far away.

To the north of the country, near the town of Cap-Haiten, stand orange groves
whose harvest is processed locally, yielding the vital ingredient for the
orange flavoured liqueurs; Grand Marnier and Cointreau. These groves have
been worked for generations by the same local peasant families, while jobs in
the processing factories have traditionally passed down through families;
thus allowing at least some degree of security in a most insecure economy.
However, just as tradition has been maintained in succession and processing
methods, so have the workers pay and conditions changed little over the
generations. In 1999 workers producing the dried pulp for Grand Marnier
formed a union to collectively bargain for improvements, those supplying
Cointreau registered their union in October 2000. Settlement with
Marnier-Lapostolle was, relatively, swift. After barely a year long campaign
managers in Paris ordered their partner on Haiti, Guacimal SA to reach a
settlement.

The situation with Remy-Cointreau has followed a somewhat different path.

Remy-Cointreau, as with Marnier-Lapostolle, sourced their orange derivatives
through Guacimal SA, whose response to the workforce's unionisation and
demands has shown scant regard for the rights of individuals far less
prevailing law or international treaties to which Haiti is signatory.

The workers demands at the most basic level are for an increase in wages to
match the local cost in living; improved conditions in terms of safety
equipment and workplace facilities and adherence to Haitian labour law. The
existing wage structures necessitate the workers toiling flat out to achieve
the national legal minimum wage of 36 gourdes per day, (£1=39.25 gourdes), a
legal minimum set in 1995 and still applicable despite the stipulation in the
Labour Act that it should increase in line with the cost of living. The
unions further seek appropriate protective equipment for all workers; proper
tools for harvest; and improved conditions with respect to access to showers
and functioning toilets, basic demands and implicit in Haitian labour law.
Additionally management are ignoring the labour laws as they pertain to sick
pay, holiday pay and pensions.

>From the very outset Guacimal SA have refused to recognise either the unions
or the workers right to collective bargaining; both encouraged in the labour
act and enshrined in International Labor Organisation conventions signed by
Haiti; and have instead sought to filibust negotiations, exert outside
pressure on those involved and have undertaken union busting practices. When
informed of the unions' presence, and demands, management tried to use,
first, local and then national police and politicians to have the union
declared illegal. Though on the surface they only succeeded in delaying the
registration of the union, contradictions in the law have allowed Guacimal to
continually deny the unions existence.

In March 2001 a delegation from War on Want and the GMB union visited Haiti
to meet with workers and discuss the issues. The local mayor intervened and
forced a change of venue for the meeting; a few weeks previously the same
mayor had unilaterally forced workers to end a 10 week strike. In November
2001 14 men, including 6 plantation guards, broke up a union meeting and
banned activists from the Haitian workers rights organisation Batay Ouvriye
from the plantation. While in March 2002, an official from the office of
National President Aristide visited to meet officials, managers and police,
before, in the unions' opinions, backing Guacimal SA and the local officials
in their handling of the situation.

But by far the most serious issue is the management's alleged attempted
union-busting. In addition to sending hired thugs to break up meetings, and
threatening union members while working, managers at the various locations
have, refused to collect oranges harvested by union members, changed the
rules on covering for sick employees at the Madeline processing plant, banned
union members from work sites and most recently interfered in a traditional
practice; interference which has led directly to the current increase in
violence. Every year in the "off-season" (April-November), workers and
peasant farmers are allowed to work the land between the trees to produce
food crops, an almost essential activity in such a poor country. When the
process began this year it became apparent that the plantation supervisor was
discriminating against union members in the allocation of plots. After failed
attempts to change the situation a group comprising plantation workers, local
farmers and Batay Ouvriye activists arrived at the plantation on May 27th to
allocate the land themselves. There they were met by a group including
representatives of the ruling Fanmi Lavalas party and other local officials.
In the ensuing violence many were injured. A short while later two elderly
union members were tortured and beheaded, allegedly, by the anti-union
faction. Seven arrests were made, all from the pro-union side, including two
wounded journalists who have been denied urgent medical attention. In a
"Bushonian" outburst the two journalists had previously been denounced by St
Raphaël's mayor as "terrorists". Then on the 1st June the house of the
Guacimal Unions General Secretary was burnt to the ground, and his family
forced into hiding. Other union members have been threatened with a similar
fate.

That the intimidation, violence and killing can proceed unhindered and
unchecked is indicative of a country rife with feudal and colonial practices,
of a country where a lack of consistent democracy has left a legal system
lacking both the means to intervene or safeguards to ensure the even
administration of what laws exist. There is, for example, in Haiti no law to
prevent anti-union practices by companies, while the laws pertaining to
prevention of interference in a unions internal affairs have never been fully
enforced. And while the government is officially signatory to various
international treaties on workers rights, and has enshrined some of these in
national law, a call to foreign businesses promises "Minimal intervention by
the state in the market: Government regulated prices are reduced for five
products and services including: oil, energy, telecommunications,
transportation and the minimum wage", a clear indication to foreign moneymen
that the need to pay locals fairly, isn't an issue.

Foreign business, it would appear, can also rely on the inherent unnatural
balance of power in rural Haitian society; symptoms of the legacy of
colonisation, when the European trader stood atop the social and political
orders, and the repeated failure of the ruling classes to educate or empower
the poorer classes, leaving peoples unclear as how to protect themselves or
their interests. Guacimal SA is a Haitian company, part of Novella
Enterprises owned by French citizen Jacques Novella and run by his nephews
Nonce and Daniel Zephir. Novella Enterprises started out in the coffee
business, but has grown steadily to become a multi-faced agro-export agency.
As the business has grown, so has the wealth of the principles, and with that
wealth comes power. Just as the first plantation owners from Europe ruled
their estates with virtual impunity from the law, so it seems do current
"settlers" enjoy similar privileges. With their web penetrating the corridors
of power through patronage and friendship they have been able to exploit
weaknesses in the democratic processes to their advantage; while forcing
those who turn the "worthless" plants into commercial commodities to endure
conditions of penury and squalor.

So long as such situations remain, it seems unclear how any society can ever
evolve and develop.

Yet just as the feudal landowners of the 18th century were ultimately
answerable to their masters and superiors back in Europe, so must today's
explain their actions to the global businesses they supply. The problem is,
are the businesses questioning?

In October 2000 supporters of the Madeline and St Raphaël workers began
sending letters to Remy-Cointreau management. In the replies Remy-Cointreau
stated that a representative of their company had not only met with union
officials but that all negotiations with management had occurred in the
presence of union representatives. Which was news to the unions and workers.
The letter also stated that Remy-Cointreau is dedicated to "constantly
improving our social standards and the economic situation of people working
directly and indirectly for our activities." Over the next year
Remy-Cointreau continued to tell workers' supporters of their determination
to see change in the situation, while at the same time Guacimal SA continued,
unabated, their persecution and repression. The irony in all this is that
Remy-Cointreau has ISO9002 for it's Cointreau production facility in Angers,
France; ISO9002 being the International Standard relating to quality
assurance in production, installation and service. Among its conditions are
stipulations that all work be carried out within a supportive environment;
performed using approved tools and equipment and that operators comply with
appropriate standards and codes. Exactly the areas of dispute on Haiti. That
Remy-Cointreau could not reach the same standards, or at least an
approximation, on Haiti is all the more lamentable given a claim by
Remy-Cointreau CEO Dominique Herard Dubreil that Remy-Cointreau held a
"minority, although significant share holding" in Guacimal; clients have
limited, yet utilisable power, over suppliers, shareholders, and especially
"significant" shareholders have definite leverage. That Remy-Cointreau
couldn't or wouldn't exact some influence adds to the hollowness of their
other claims.

As the beginning of the 2001/2002 season approached, Olivier Charriaud,
Remy-Cointreau's International Director, met with Yannick Ettienne from Batay
Ouvriye in Paris to discuss the situation. According to Batay Ouvriye the
meeting ended with M. Charriaud agreeing to nothing, but appearing to
indicate he would discuss the situation at a higher level within
Remy-Cointreau. Whether he did or not is unclear, what is clear is that
Remy-Cointreau's response to the meeting was as sudden as it was unexpected.
In a letter to Yannick Ettienne dated 17th January 2002, seven weeks after
the meeting, M. Charriaud stated that because they were "not convinced that
the social climate has calmed down that much" they had "decided to reconsider
our business arrangement and to stop being supplied by Guacimal".

Unable to stand the heat, Remy-Cointreau left the kitchen.

That a European luxury goods manufacturer with annual profits of £184 million
(2001) couldn't persuade a supplier in whom they held a "significant"
shareholding to pay a living wage, to adhere to local law and international
conventions is woeful, that they then, in response to criticism, abandon the
workers to the mercy of local management and their friends in the regional
hierarchy is deplorable. Quite how this action "...convinces you of our good
will..." as M. Charriaud hopes, is unclear. Also unclear is whether
Remy-Cointreau still hold a shareholding in Guacimal or from where they are
currently sourcing their orange derivatives, and what guarantees they have
received over worker conditions; tellingly their website proudly announces
their oranges are "...grown in the Caribbean by Cointreau..."

The problems experienced by the Guacimal SA workers are not unique on Haiti.
International organisations list numerous other cases of legislation being
ignored, agreements never being implemented, violence and intimidation
against those who seek an improvement. Additionally, as recently as June
2002, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) in a
report to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), highlights allegations of
sexual discrimination, widespread workplace sexual harassment, child labour
and forced labour on Haiti. The difference for the Guacimal workers is that
there existed clear channels from them to major European companies; the
general situation on Haiti won't improve without help from outside; if those
with the ability to influence things choose not to the outlook is bleak.

Haiti does however have a precedent. In 1804, following 12 years of war,
Haiti became the first colony granted independence and the only successful
slave rebellion in the Caribbean. As the 200th anniversary approaches Haitian
workers can take strength from this as they strive, still, for a greater
level of equality, security and human decency.

Julius Bergemann

_______________________________________________

This email is forwarded as a service of the Haiti Support Group.

See the Haiti Support Group web site:
www.haitisupport.gn.apc.org

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