22461: Benodin: Batay Ouvrye (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Robert Benodin <r.benodin@worldnet.att.net>

Batay Ouvrye
June 20th, 2004
After more than a week of expecting a resolution to the decidedly
unconstitutional situation created by Grupo M’s violently abusive firing of
over three hundred and fifty Haitian workers at the Ouanaminthe free trade
zone on Friday June 11th, we, at Batay Ouvriye, are obliged, once again, to
alert the public, national and international, concerning the extreme gravity
of the situation.
The stakes here are:
-         What future for one of the most impoverished populations in the
hemisphere (and almost the world)?
-         What future for workers all over the world?
-         What future for democrats in the increasingly dominated and
repressive international arena?
The Codevi Ouanaminthe free trade zone was a project negotiated secretly by
President Aristide in April 2003, despite the constant protests of the
Haitian people with regard to such projects, since before 1986. This
rejection, we will simply and clearly reiterate, was based on:
-         The non-sustainability, at the national level, of development
based on this agenda;
-         The lack of capacity and will of national States to control such
projects;
-         The highly renowned tradition of non-respect for workers’ rights
within free trade zones. (We should recall here the objective reasons
explaining this, FTZs being based on generally backwards, labor-intensive
industries forced to seek their profit through their use of cheap labor.)
Although the free trade zone project was introduced in Haiti over thirty
years ago (late ‘70’s – the same period in which FTZs were launched in the
neighboring country), coming closely after the Haitian peoples’
victimization in agro-industrial projects such as the SHADA and sisal, it
was difficult to implement. Despite attempts by various governments, only
the populist regime of Aristide was able to pull it through. In the
Dominican Republic, as in the rest of Latin America, the FTZs have been
imposed through heavy maneuvering of the local ruling classes and
governments in the quest to appease the populations, avid to quiet their
hungry stomachs, in spite of inhuman work conditions and barely living
wages. During the two unanimously followed general strikes in the Dominican
Republic late last year, President Mejía, for example, warned the population
he wouldn’t tolerate civil unrest, due to the fact he was charged with
watching over the country’s stability for three major reasons: tourism, the
maquilas and the free trade zones. With over five hundred free trade zones,
the number of functioning independent unions can be counted on a hand. Is
union organizing not, though, a provable fact of democratic functioning?
At the Ouanaminthe free trade zone, the workers have been consistently and
constantly silenced. Ever since the company began operations, Batay Ouvriye
contacted Grupo M’s management in the hope of establishing proper codes of
negotiation. After two summary responses, never did Grupo M pursue the
matter. Hardly a month after the union was set up, the entire union was
fired. After an enormous fight engaged by the workers and solidarity
everywhere, hardly had negotiations been initiated that practically the
entire workforce of the principal MD factory was already fired!
What is the significance of this for Haitian workers? What is the message
thus being conveyed to them, as well as to the people of Haiti in general
and all those concerned throughout the world? Very clearly, the neo-liberal
credo of “shutting up” in the interest of “job creation”, as if that were
the slightest guarantee of the very principles on which the Haitian nation
was set up, namely: freedom from colonial subjugation, freedom to determine
the patterns of development best suited to the pursuit of collective ideals
and, above all, freedom from slavery!
The Haitian bourgeoisie, a retarded and warped entity if ever there was, has
eagerly adopted Grupo M’s CEO, Fernando Capellan, a 45-year-old quick rich,
as a new full-fledged member of the Association of Haitian Industrialists
(ADIH). As such, it alternates supposedly “nationalistic” rhetoric such as
the need to keep North American and European influence abreast (particularly
with regard for international workers’ solidarity movements), the issues
being “Haitian” ones… while at the same time practically getting on its
knees to beg for foreign investment in the country – always, of course, in
the interest of… “job creation”. The heights of their discourse are at
present unbridled, on all the major radio stations, on the internet,
internationally…
We have been subjected to hear the most extreme absurdities and Cold War
style accusations:
-         Batay Ouvriye is “opposed to work” (!), “following an ideological
agenda”… or better yet, a “French group” (!!!).
-         Sister Nidia, of the Verification Commission chosen by Grupo M,
Levi Strauss and the Workers’ Rights Consortium, “is a colombian nun (who)
does not hide the communist leanings of her congregation. She would be hard
pressed to do so when these nuns mission blatantly displays class struggle
axioms and maxims. »
-         That Batay Ouvriye “chased” Grand Marnier “from the Plateau
Central” where it was “since a century”! [The Batay Ouvriye union at Grand
Marnier has splendid relations with management, negotiating, quite
correctly, yearly, in the North of Haiti – Cap Haitian – very far from the
Plateau Central!]
-         That the population of Ouanaminthe is chasing Batay Ouvriye from
the area and that the workers “relieved by the firings”, have had their most
successful production days since the firings (as if, crippled by fear, the
workers haven’t been subjugated into working at the most infernal rates)!
That the protests are triggered by a “small radical group”, instigating
trouble and dictating orders to the workers to revolt (always, since
Duvalier!!!)
… … All those having lived during the ultra-reactionary recent 1991-1994
coup years readily recognized these enormous disinformation lies that
perfectly correspond to the resurgence of the extreme right on the Haitian
political scene.
On a more sober, yet just as contradictory tone, Marie-Claude Bayard of
ADIH, recently invited with her organization, by Capellan to visit the Free
Trade Zone, denounces the union’s “brutal manner of action”, without the
least substantiation. Impressed, she ingenuously gasps at the zone’s large
water cistern, frowning at the union who doesn’t understand it should take
patience in hoping that the waters be distributed to Ouanaminthe, a town, at
her own admissal, “completely distressed, without even a paved road, and
where the inhabitants are constantly desperately seeking water” (!!! – Radio
Metropole, Interview, June 18, 2004).
That which is much more troublesome, however, is the doubt introduced in the
public’s minds concerning the union’s absolutely simple and democratic
pursuits (wage increase, lowering of the constantly increasing production
quotas, correct negotiations…). Capellan personally announced, without the
slightest element of proof, that the union had threatened workers with
burning their homes, killing them and had even gone so far as to sabotage
production by cutting machinery wires. He alleged that he had pictures of
the union blocking the bridge giving access to the factory, whereas in a
meeting in presence of the World Bank where these pictures (and video, for
added effect) were presented, the World Bank representatives as well as
lawyers present clearly concluded that there was absolutely no proof in
these pictures that the union was obstructing the bridge.
Capellan accuses the union of lying when he advances that:
-         “ that there is no dark room”
-         the anti-tetanic shots were standard and could not provoke
abortions
-         he would never tolerate abusive treatment from his employees, they
would be fired immediately if ever this was true.
Yet:
-         Michel Felix bears traces of the abuse he received from the
Dominican soldiers on Friday, June 11th and even showed them to the Codevi
management. Mrs. Elie Moravia (Efraus Luna) and Felisyen (photographed) as
well. What measures of correction have been taken with regard to this?
-         Asilia Desormes, Evelyne Joseph and Michele Berthelet had
miscarriages, Evelyne at eight months of pregnancy (both she and Asilia bear
medical certificates) shortly after the supposed tetanus shots. How does
management explain this? Why were all of the shots undocumented?
-         Of the seven new committee members at the new t-shirt factory,
three have been fired and a fourth, the Committee’s secretary is receiving
much pressure telling him that he has been identified as union, that he
should indicate the list of union members, that he should sign such and such
papers… If he refuses to give in to this pressure and is fired, then the
majority of the committee will be fired.
-         Ismenia Furcal, Hoy correspondent, reported on the very day that:
“El disgusto de los trabajadores se originó, conforme a las informacio­nes,
en que el pasado día 4, casi a la hora de la salida, soldados domini­canos
que custodian el establecimiento reprimieron con violencia a varios
empleados. Este incidente fue provocado porque alegadamente a una empleada
le rom­pieron la blusa que portaba y luego la humillaron públicamente,
incidente en que a su vez, una mujer embarazada resultó con golpes. Otro
problema que protestan los trabajadores, fue la alegada cancela­ción de 12,
que reclamaron un_ salario más justo y un trato dio.”
Capellan, echoed by Bayard, claims his work conditions are splendid, “way
above those of the Haitian Labor Code” and in conformity with its WRAP
certification – yet, WRAP code provisions do not reference ILO conventions
and hardly require more than compliance with the pitifully low national
labor law.
With all of this, Grupo M’s CEO calmly announces that he simply wants to
resolve problems and would like to initiate dialogue. After such drastic
reprisal measures?!!!
Would it not appear sensible for all of the different parties to be able to
talk together in good faith? This is the union’s major demand. However, even
visitor groups, such as the ADIH shoot forward radical opinions without the
slightest consultation of the workers, or the slightest propensity to hear
both versions.
The only explanation to this situation is, precisely, the highly polarized
context of the problem, thankfully (for the Haitian Nation) setting the
problem of political and economic orientations in its first initial
enacting. It is high time for an international mediation commission to
intervene.
But before this, clearly, Grupo M must back off its unilateral firing
measures, reinstate all those fired and replace the five production modules
that were taken to the Dominican Republic, in violation of the World Bank
loan aiming to help Haitian workers.