a784: Protest of Remy Cointreau's Abuse of Haitian Workers (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Tttnhm@aol.com

Protest of Remy Cointreau's Abuse of Haitian Workers
INDYMEDIA
by Joshua Breitbart, Saturday, Feb 2 '02

http://chicago.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=7612&group=webcast


Friday, February 1 -- Members of the Global Sweatshop Coalition rallied in
front of the New York offices of Remy Cointreau to call attention to the
treatment of workers on the plantations in Haiti where the oranges for the
company's high-priced liqueur are grown.

Dozens of people held signs, chanted, and made speeches detailing the way the
workers must cut the oranges and peel them by hand, with no protection from
the sun, for the equivalent of less than $1.50 per day.

The workers formed a union in 1999 to negotiate with Cointreau and Produits
Agricoles S.A. Guacimal, the company that owns the plantations, but their
requests for meetings with the companies have been repeatedly denied,
according to Yannick Etienne of Batay Ouvriye, the workers' organization.
(The name means "workers' struggle" in Creole.) The workers also say that
they have come under constant threats of beatings, arrests and dismissals.

The Coalition has been picketing the Cointreau offices every Friday from
5-6pm for nearly two months, and they say they will continue the weekly
pickets in front of the office at 1350 6th Avenue at 55th Street until
Cointreau meets with Batay Ouvriye.


Charles Arthur adds:

The Global Sweatshop Coalition is an alliance of NYC social justice
organizations with roots in the labor, socialist, and Latin America
solidarity movements. Member groups include the New York Committee in
Solidarity with the People of El Salvador, Nicaragua Solidarity Network, the
New York Local of the Industrial Workers of the World, the Disney-Haiti
Justice Campaign, the Socialist Party, and Wetlands.
Coalition committees meet most Wednesdays, with general public meetings on
the 4th Wednesday of every month. Everyone is welcome to attend all meetings.

Coalition Contact Info:
The Global Sweatshop Coalition
Phone: 212-645-5230 Fax: 212-645-6243
Email: nicadlw@earthlink.net


_______________________________________________

This email is forwarded as a service of the Haiti Support Group.

SEE THE HAITI SUPPORT GROUP WEB SITE:  <A
HREF="http://www.gn.apc.org/haitisupport">http://www.gn.apc.org/haitisupport
</A>

The Haiti Support Group - solidarity with the Haitian people's struggle for
justice, participatory democracy and equitable development, since 1992.
____________________________________________