Haiti: What we learned from the net

Sometimes it really does just hit you. The Internet really does change the way we look at things. I was struck by this as I look back upon the recent tumultuous events in Haiti.
Watching television news here in Britain – which is how most of us get our news, especially foreign news – the story we saw played out was of a once-democratic leader (Jean-Bertrand Aristide) who had somehow gone bad and was tossed out of office by a popular rebellion. But only hours after the departure of Haiti’s elected president, we heard of dramatic developments taking place at a textile factory in the north east of the country. The news came via email.


The factory was owned by a Dominican company called Grupo M, and produced materials for, among others, Levi Strauss. Its workers had formed a union, but came to work one morning to find that all the union members had been sacked. The following day, a demonstration of the workers in solidarity with their sacked comrades was set to take place.
Now this was happening in the context of a rebellion against what appeared to be a hated and corrupt regime, so one would have expected that the rebel forces would either let the workers carry on, or even come to their aid. Instead, rebel troops came to the factory at the invitation of management to beat and arrest demonstrators, and terrorize the others into returning to work.
Not one of the three 24-hour news channels I receive was reporting that story, despite extensive coverage on the Internet. The story was reported on Haitian web sites, and then on anti-sweatshop websites and mailing lists, and eventually got picked up by such sites as the Workers Independent News Service (WINS) and LabourStart, which launched an online campaign in support of the workers.
Now you could argue that the happenings at a single textile factory in north-east Haiti may not deserve to be reported on the BBC, Sky and ITN. Fair enough. But because stories like this don’t get reported, we don’t see the whole picture. Suddenly the rebels no longer appear to be cigar-chomping Fidel Castros emerging from the jungles, kalashnikovs in hand, singing revolutionary anthems. They start to look more like Pinkertons, union-busting private cops.
In a statement released by one Haitian union, the “rebels” were also called just that – in double quotation marks. The real rebels in Haiti seem to be workers at Grupo M, daring to fight for their rights to have a union even as their country imploded.
For more information, see http://www.labourstart.org/haiti/

1 Comment on "Haiti: What we learned from the net"

  1. Arieh L"tz | 10/03/2004 at 00:39 |

    Eric: Got this from the e-list of United Students Against Sweatshops. It is of course related to the above. >> Arieh – see below
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Date: Mon, 8 Mar 2004 09:43:49 -0800 (PST)
    From: Molly McGrath memcgrat2000@yahoo.com
    Subject: Action Alert: Haiti rebel army already using weapons in bosses’ defense!
    Campaign for Labor Rights list-owner@campaignforlaborrights.org
    wrote:To: “Labor Alerts”
    From: “Campaign for Labor Rights”
    Subject: CLR: Haiti rebel army already using weapons in bosses’ defense!
    Date: Fri, 05 Mar 2004 14:34:07 -0800
    This action alert is based on information from Yannick Etienne at Batay Ouvriye in Haiti and the Haiti Support Group in Great Britain.
    URGENT ACTION ALERT!
    Union workers fired in Haiti!
    Friday, March 05, 2004
    Union-busting at the CODEVI Free Trade Zone Haiti rebel army already using weapons in bosses’ defense!
    Ouanaminthe, Haiti
    On Monday March 2nd, 2004, 34 members of the trade union SOKOWA (Sendika Ouvriye Kodevi Wanament – Ouanaminthe Codevi Workers’ Union) in the Codevi Free Trade Zone in Ouanaminthe, Haiti, were brutalized and illegally fired by the company’s management and told to come take their paychecks next Monday, March 8th. These firings were accompanied by many threats at gunpoint, as well as physical abuse.
    This situation followed a tumultuous two weeks in Haiti, rocked by political events and at the Ouanaminthe free trade zone:
    -On Feb. 16th, the new trade union handed management a letter in which they informed it of the union’s existence and requested a meeting to discuss factory matters. On the same day, Limbert Cruz, the Codevi Free Trade Zone Director, answered the letter, saying that management’s doors were always opened for the workers organization, and their agreement to meet with the union at any convenient date and place. (The union would meet later concerning this letter and prepare an answer Feb. 26th, suggesting March 1st for this meeting)
    -On Wednesday, February 25th, a few workers were
    informally discussing things with members of management (Jean Renaud, Luis and Jean Philippe) when, following a complaint by one of the unionists, Ariel Jerome, the latter was informed that he was fired. Protesting, he was violently beaten up with rifle butts and forced to give up
    his work badge.
    -Thursday, Feb. 26th, all of the factory workers stopped working in protest, demanding Ariel Jerome’s re-hiring at work, medical treatment, as well as the firing of the two main management persons responsible: Jean Renaud and Borgella. Limbert Cruz came out to talk to them and agreed to cancel the firing and take care of the abused worker’s health. Indeed, Jerome was give his badge back and sent to the health center for tests and medication. Cruz, however, added that he needed to consult about the issue of the two
    managers.
    -No response to the question of the two managers was forthcoming. Quite the contrary, on Monday morning (March 1st), Jean Renaud passed throughout the factory, line by line, informing the workers that Levi Strauss was withdrawing its orders, because, amongst other reasons, the workers’ work-stoppages meant that the business was suffering and consequently they needed to get rid of workers. Rumor had it that he said before losing his job, he would make many workers lose their jobs. Monday afternoon, Renaud called all of the union members and, with much pressure, informed them they were fired. Dominican military (Ouanaminthe is on the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic) pointed their weapons at
    the workers and seized their badges. Several were roughed up. All in all, 34 were fired, all union members. The workers resolved to stop working on Tuesday, in protest.
    -On Tuesday, March 3rd, all of the workers were mobilized to protest the firings. All of a sudden, members of the rebel army at Ouanaminthe arrived, with guns, to rough up the workers. Several workers were handcuffed. After much mistreatment and threats, they were forced to resume work. Later, the rebels revealed that they had been contacted the previous evening by factory management who informed them that the workers were going to make problems at work the next day. Management even gave them a list of union members that they were to get rid of.
    It is possible that more firings have occurred this morning, Wednesday March 3, 2004, as the workers are determined to mobilize in order to counteract management’s arbitrary and unjust actions.
    Batay Ouvriye is urgently soliciting each and everyone’s input to support our effort to force Dominican free trade zone operator Grupo M to reverse its decision before next Monday, especially as all government offices (Labor Bureau, Justice.) in Ouanaminthe continue to be closed.
    Please write to:
    -Grupo M
    Fernando Capellan email: fcapellan@grupom.com.do
    Limbert Cruz email: lcruz@grupom.com.do
    Ask for the re-hiring of the fired workers, respect for their right to organize a union, and for medical attention to those workers who were beaten up.
    -Levi-Strauss
    Michael Kobori –
    – Director, Global Code of Conduct
    Levi Strauss & Co.
    1155 Battery St.
    San Francisco, CA 94111
    Tel: (415)501-1459
    Fax: (415)501-1485
    email: mkobori@levi.com
    Ask Levi-Strauss to insist that their contractor comply with internationally recognized workers’ rights, most especially the right to organize a union and bargain collectively.
    -The World Bank’s International Finance Corporation
    Mark Constantine Email: mconstantine@ifc.org
    Remind the World Bank that its recent IFC loan to Grupo M included the obligation to respect freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining as a loan condition and tell the Bank that recent actions by Grupo M in Ouanaminthe are in violation of the loan agreement.
    Please let Campaign for Labor Rights know if you receive a response from any of your letters! list-owner@campaignforlaborrights.org

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