6211: Re:6207: Re: 6198: Conditions in Haiti leave a bitter taste for workers (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Bryan Wharram <bwharram@med.umich.edu>

The wages quoted from the Morning Star article are from two different companies:

<Workers labour flat-out but earn less than the minimum 
>wage of 36 gourdes (around ?1) dictated by Haitian labour laws.
...
<and later on they have had a raise not from those "less than 36 Gourdes"
but from 52 Gourdes ????

<<Workers received a 55 per cent pay rise, from 52 to 95 guordes per day> >>


The 36 gourdes wages are paid by Remy-Cointreau:

<At the plantation that supplies Remy-Cointreau workers labour for long hours 
picking, peeling and grating bitter oranges for shipment to the company's 
distillery in France. Workers labour flat-out but earn less than the minimum 
wage of 36 gourdes (around £1) dictated by Haitian labour laws.> 


The higher wages (95 guordes per day) are paid to Grand Marnier  workers following a long struggle.  Conditions and pay for workers at Grand Marnier before the union's succes were probably similar to those currently at Remy- Cointreau :

<Following Batay Ouvriye's creation of a union at a plantation that supplies 
the Grand Marnier company, workers' finally won their struggle for improved 
wages and conditions in July. A 55 per cent pay rise and other concessions 
were secured for the workers following years of earning less than the 
minimum wage.>


I hope this helps.

Bryan Wharram