14533: Hermantin: Miami-Herald - Thousands of Haitian teachers strike (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Miami-Herald

Posted on Fri, Jan. 17, 2003

Thousands of Haitian teachers strike
BY JANE REGAN
Special to The Herald

PORT-AU-PRINCE -- Classrooms across the country were silent Thursday as more
than 15,000 public school teachers began a two-day walkout to protest
working conditions and high fuel prices and to demand a 250 percent
cost-of-living raise.

Five teachers' unions called the strike. A number of private schools in the
capital closed their doors in solidarity. The strike comes after fuel prices
were raised about 80 percent on Jan. 1.

The government said it was open to dialogue and urged teachers not to
strike, but a meeting between unions and the Ministry of Education on
Wednesday failed to halt the action.

'The ministry said it was a `social dialogue,' not a negotiation,'' said
Rene Jolibois, assistant secretary of the National Confederation of Haitian
Teachers.

The strike came during a week of anti-government turmoil.

A protest against higher fuel prices on Tuesday ended with more than a dozen
people injured and one man dead after police fired shots at a barricade.

Kattley Charles, a primary school teacher, said she regretted making
children miss school but she had to strike.

At her school on the outskirts of the capital, she said she struggles to
teach her classroom of 150 5- and 6-year-olds how to read.

''I work with 15 or 20 kids at a time, and the cleaning lady looks after the
rest,'' said Charles. ``All of them are crammed into one room. It's like a
jail.''

As the value of the Haitian currency, the gourde, continues to fall, the
buying power of Charles' 625 gourdes per week has dropped to about $15. High
school teachers earn more, about 2,060 gourdes, or $50 per week.

''I spend 56 gourdes a day just for buses. That's 280 gourdes [$6.83] just
to get to work and back.'' Charles said. ``How am I supposed to make ends
meet?''

According to UNICEF, only about two-thirds of Haitian children, and only
half the girls, attend school. With only 13 percent of Haitian students
enrolled in the country's public school system, the strike mainly affects
the poorest students.

''I can't say I agree with the strike, since we pay for it by missing
classes, but I can't say I'm against it either,'' said 19-year-old Ronald
Joseph, as he sat in the empty yard at a local high school.

The strike came on a day when 184 organizations from business, union and
other sectors condemned the government for failing to respond by their Jan.
15 deadline to a list of demands related to state tolerance of armed gangs
and persecution of the opposition.



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