14564: (Arthur) News from outside Port-au-Prince (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Tttnhm@aol.com

Strike after strike

Haiti Press Network - 16 January 2003

Petit-Goâve – Refuse collectors demanding four months back pay are on strike
according to Radio Metropole's local correspondent. These employees of the
Mayor who earn 400 gourdes a month are calling on the Minister of the
Interior to intervene on their behalf.

Kenscoff - The town's youth demonstrated today against the increase in fuel
prices. The police intervened and a number of people were arrested. Local
people denounced the arrests as illegal.

Gonaïves – The strike announced by teachers' unions was 100% effective in the
region's schools. The teachers said it would be the same on the second day of
the strike. A child was wounded by bullets in Decahos as his mother took him
to school. She testified that she had seen the person who shot her child.

Les Cayes – Teachers and students declared their solidarity with the
teachers' unions which had called a strike for 16 and 17 January. A member of
the National Council of Haitian Teachers (CNEH - Conseil National des
Enseignants Haïtiens) said that the strike should have started in September.

Mirebalais - A former member of parliament from the region has asked the
authorities to fix the cost of public transport. "As the government doesn't
mind increasing the cost of fuel, it is also its responsibility to set the
cost of transport", he said. For example, the cost of the Mirebalais to
Port-au-Prince journey had increased from 35 to 100 gourdes.

Port-de-Paix – The Port-au-Prince teachers' unions' strike call received the
unconditional support of teachers and pupils in the region. Their principal
grievance concerns the price of fuel and the subsequent increased cost of
transport.


(translated from French by Charles Arthur for the Haiti Support Group)


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