21627: (Arthur) Haiti: Factory workers win victory (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Tttnhm@aol.com

Haiti: Factory workers win victory
People's Weekly World Newspaper, 04/29/04

Workers at the Codevi factory in the “free trade zone” near Ouanaminthe,
Haiti, on the border with the Dominican Republic, have won a victory in the fight
for workers’ rights, according to the Haiti-based Batay Ouvriye and the
Campaign for Labor Rights. After the illegal firing and physical abuse of 34
workers in March (see PWW, 3/20), the workers’ union, SOKOWA, along with labor
solidarity groups, effectively pressured the owners to rehire the workers and
recognize workers’ rights.

Final negotiations on April 13 involved the workers and representatives of
Codevi FTZ, the World Bank, and Levi Strauss, whose jeans have been manufactured
at the factory. After negotiations, Codevi agreed to reinstate all of the
workers in the conflict, payment of medical services of the worker who had been
most severely beaten, payment for the time they spent without work according to
the present minimum salary, recognition of union rights within the factory
and immediate negotiations with a union delegation to discuss the workers’
general demands. Workers note that management is already dragging its feet in
rehiring the workers, but have vowed to hold management to its promises.