23384: Esser: Industrialists: Use a Haitian Sweatshop (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser <torx@joimail.com>

Centre des Médias alternatifs du Québec - CMAQ
http://www.cmaq.net/

Industrialists proud boast: Use a Haitian Sweatshop - We pay our
workers next to nothing
by Julius Bergmann,

October 10, 2004

Situated in the extreme north east of Haiti, hard on the border to
the Dominican Republic, the town of Ouanaminthe should be a small
paradise. History and commerce however has seen that it is anything
but. In 1937 Dominican Republic Dictator Trujillo ordered a massacre
of Haitian migrants living and working on the Dominican side of the
border. Dominican soldiers, using the color of a persons skin and
their ability to pronounce Spanish words as a guide, cut 20,000
Haitians down. Thousands more were displaced and fled to Ouanaminthe.
Today the memories are just that, yet the river forming the border
bears witness and today is known quite simply as Massacre River. In
1993 the UN ordered a fuel embargo on Haiti as part of a concerted
effort to remove the military dictatorship of General Cedras.
Embargoes can always be broken and Ouanminthe became the center of an
illicit fuel trade. Thousands of poor Haitians flooded into the town
hoping to make their fortune, thousands of liters of oil based
products flooded into the soil and water system. The pollution has
never been cleared up; nor has the after effects of the rapidly built
and subsequently abandoned shanty towns been rectified. Apart from
the rubbish and sanitary waste issues, the makeshift community needed
wood for cooking and warmth, this they simply took from surrounding
forests, a deforestation tradition carried out by the developers of
the Ouanaminthe Free Trade Zone. Inaugurated in 2002 the Free Trade
Zone was part of the Aristide governments attempt to pacify the
neo-liberal pressures to privatize and liberalize the Haitian
economy. Funded by the IMF, through the IFC, it is a huge, shambling,
complex right on the border, (there are entrances and exits on both
the Haitian and Dominican sides; all important visitors enter and
leave through the Dominican doors) . At the moment it is used by its
owners, Dominican textile producer Grupo M and the workers stitch
predominately for Levi Strauss, but also for other international
brand concerns. While the international finance community celebrated
the plants opening the reality for the workers, or at least the
Haitian workers, has been somewhat different. Not only have Haitian
domestic labor laws been violated and agreements with international
workers rights groups ignored employees at the plant have reportedly
been subject to regular intimidation and violence by the Dominican
Army and forced to receive unknown, undeclared injections.
Additionally the area around Ounaminthe has lost hundreds of hectares
of fertile agricultural land, suffered deforestation to facilitate
access and the return of shanty settlements as Haitians searching
work travel to Ouanaminthe.

While normal Haitians attempt to cope with the after effects of the
February violence, the removal of President Aristide and the summer
hurricanes, the Haitian business community continue to push Haiti as
the perfect outsourcing base. And why not; situated just of the
Florida coast Haiti offers American companies almost unlimited
benefits with minimal bureaucratic formalities. At the Electrical
Manufacturers? Expo in Indianapolis in September Rudolf and Reginal
Boulos continued the drum beating for Ouanaminthe. Family Boulos are
a prominent Haitian family, well known for their links to right wing
groups and founders of the Haitian Democracy Project (sic) Rudolph
Boulos was also indicted in the murder of Haitian journalist Jean
Dominique, who had pursued the businessman over the death of at least
60 children who had taken a "cough medicine" produced by Boulos. No
charges ever followed his questioning.
During their presentation, (available at
http://haitipolicy.org/Electrical_files/frame.htm) family Boulos
extoll the virtues of Ouanaminthe. Without apparent sarcasm or irony
they push amongst other advantages, the;

"Competitively priced workforce"; Haitian laborers are paid
considerably less than the Dominican workers at the plant.

"Immediate turnaround" the harsh reality of the International textile
market is short delivery times and high pressure to meet tight
deadlines.

"Two countries = added advantage"; the labels on the finished
products read "Made in Haiti, Finished in the Dominican Republic",
and so circumnavigate quota limits.

"Minimum Daily wage in Haiti:$1.62. Benefits also slightly lower"
Although the Haitian workers get around $1.90 per day, it still
represents a pitiful return for a days work on a product that will
eventually sell for much, much more. However such are the margins and
pressures in the international textile trade, that a few cents saved
on the workers can make the difference between losing and keeping an
order.

"Excellent labour relations"; unless the labour happen to be a member
of a trade union, Haitian, question management practices, show
initiative or upset the Dominican soldiers guarding the complex.

All the claims and promises made in the presentation, including the
conclusion that costs can be kept down through the combination "cheap
labour - tax exemptions - low transportation costs", are eerily
similar to those made in the 1997 "Guide to investing in Haiti".
Published by the Manufacturers Association of Haiti (ADIH), the
section "Good Reasons to Invest in Haiti" includes:

"Minimal intervention by the State in the market: Government
regulated prices are reduced for five products and services
including: oil, energy, telecommunications, transportation, and the
minimum wage."

The Boulos presentation ends with the "Key Benefits":

"Decisive cost management in a price dominated market"
"Capacity to develop and produce in record time from order to supply"

These are what the industrialists want.
What the majority of Haitians want is the ability to be self
sufficient in terms of staple foodstuffs, something they could lay
claim to before the privatizations of the mid 90s military regime
undermined domestic production to the benefit of subsidized US
imports and a situation that wont be achievable when high quality
agricultural land is concreted over to build clothes production
factories.

They want access to education, something which will become even
harder when qualified teachers have to take jobs stitching jeans
because there is no education budget for wages, books or buildings and
anyway the official language of education is French, spoken by 7% of
the population rather than the Creole spoken by the overwhelming
majority of Haitians.

They want the right to self determination, something they will never
have so long as the forces of international capital continue to
exert a dominating force over their country.

Next to a picture a smiling Haitian worker stands the claim;
"A win-win situation: Haiti gets jobs, investors compete"

Haiti gets real foreign investment, jobs where humane conditions
prevail and a chance to build a secure future for itself and its
population would no doubt increase the smile on not only her face,
but also those of all her colleagues and countrymen.
.