22335: (Chamberlain) Dominican-Haiti Trade (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By PETER PRENGAMAN

   SANTO DOMINGO, June 6 (AP) -- A Dominican factory that makes Levi's
jeans in a Haitian free-trade zone plans to close its doors and lay off 700
Haitian employees because of labor disputes, company officials said
Wednesday.
   Grupo M, one of the Dominican Republic's largest free-trade zone
companies, built the $10 million factory a year ago in the border town of
Quanaminthe, Haiti.
   The decision is a blow to Haiti, the Americas' poorest country, where
most people are jobless and the political situation has become more fragile
since the February rebellion that ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
   "This has been a very difficult decision, and we've done everything to
avoid it," Grupo M spokeswoman Rosa Taveras said. "The majority of people
want to keep working but it's a radical group that pushed us to this
point."
   Workers at the factory, who make about 750 Haitian Gourds $18 a week and
have no health benefits, have been pushing for higher wages and a medical
plan over the last two months.
   About 100 workers went on strike Monday and stopped workers from
crossing a picket line, Grupo M said. Though production resumed Tuesday,
the company said it needed to make a change.
   The decision was made "for security reasons in the face of threats and
violent actions by a group of activists called Batay Ouvriye," Grupo M
President Fernando Capellan said.
   Representatives of Batay Ouvriye could not be reached for comment.
   Free-trade zones in the two countries are areas where companies can
manufacture goods without having to pay import taxes on raw materials or
export taxes on the final product.
   Companies operating in free-trade zones are a leading employer in the
Dominican Republic, with 530 of them employing 170,833 people in 2002,
officials said.
   Despite the proximity to Haiti, only a few companies have set up shop
across the border.