15546: Wucker re Arthur/Orenstein on assembly jobs (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Michele Wucker <michele@wucker.com>


In the assembly-industry thread, Katie Orenstein points out rightly that
Haiti's poor infrastructure, political instability, and, yes, labor
disputes have contributed to the decline of assembly industry jobs.


>Charles Arthur wrote: "...one of the biggest contributing factors to the
>massive decline
>in the number of assembly jobs in Haiti between the heydays of the mid-1980s
>and the decline of mid/late 1990s was the 1991-94 military coup regime and
>the economic sanctions against it.

In the summer of 1992 I wrote a piece for business Latin America, citing
several assembly industry employers, that argued that Haiti's assembly
industry had already been losing jobs to other countries at a dramatic rate
for some time BEFORE the 1991 coup because overall costs in Haiti were much
higher, despite lower wages. The biggest factor was the port: poor
facilities, high fees and corruption. Frequent work stoppages (at the time
politics related) were also a huge cost factor.

Certainly, the sanctions made things worse, but it doesn't make much sense
to fret over the past when the question is how to improve the lot of
Haitian workers NOW. And we can debate as much as we want about the main
causes of the problem, but I suggest turning the debate to how to fix the
causes, whatever their contribution was. Back to Orenstein's question: <<
how should labor organizers working for more jobs and higher wages proceed? >>

Absolutely, workers should receive better wages, benefits (I'm not even
talking 401k plans here -but help like on-site meals and medical clinics,
help with transportation, and even, gasp, education --and all of these
things benefit the employer as well as the workers) and general treatment
(ie no firing for pregnancies or attempts to unionize etc).

What we're debating is how to get those things for workers. All too often,
labor disputes are highly confrontational. If we look at low wages as a
symptom of bigger issues, I'd suggest that labor organizers join with
assembly representatives to press for changes of the root causes, in
exchange for higher wages etc. Obviously, in Haiti this is wishful
thinking. But it's happened before. In the U.S., for example, a number of
industry associations-ie the business side, not labor-- have joined with
worker organizers to fight on the good side on a number of immigrant rights
issues. In Mexico and other Latin American countries, there is a regular,
often annual, pact among labor, business, and the government in which each
party receives pledges to certain policies in its favor.  In other words,
there's a process by which groups identify common interests and fight for them.

I understand that this sounds great in theory and is merely an email among
a group of people who talk and think too much; wishful thinking, perhaps.
But these are the kind of thoughts that must get more attention if Haiti is
to move beyond the impasses that have so frustrated so many of us for so long.

Michele