Guacimal/Cointreau campaign update - 28 November 2001
Information provided by Batay Ouvriye and the PAPDA
On Monday 26th November, a representative of the Haitian workers' movement, Batay Ouvriye, together with members of the French solidarity organisations, Collectif Haiti de France and Réseau-Solidarité, met with Olivier Charriaud, Rémy Cointreau's international director, at the company's headquarters in Paris.
The delegation asked Charriaud why Rémy Cointreau had not pressed its Haitian partner, Guacimal SA, to hold reasonable negotiations with the workers' union at the processing plant at Madeline, or to recognise the legally-registered union at the St. Raphaël plantation. They pointed out that Rémy Cointreau had been replying to concerned campaigners with letters stressing that the company "readily accepts the presence of trade unions," "respects workers' rights," and "does not tolerate moral or physical harassment" of its workers. Yet, the reality at the Guacimal workplaces in Haiti was quite the opposite. In fact, after a year of heavy-handed intimidation and aggression, early in November, the Guacimal management sent a representative to the St. Raphaël plantation to recruit non-unionised workers to begin the orange harvest. This move was a clear attempt to break the plantation workers' union.
Charriaud replied that he was both surprised and dismayed that his company's standards and norms were not being applied by Guacimal SA. As far as he knew, Rémy Cointreau and the management of Guacimal SA were agreed on the need to create a climate of mutual respect with the workers. He claimed to have no idea that there continued to be a bitter and unresolved dispute between the workers' unions and the management in the person of Daniel and Nonce Zephyr.
The delegation supporting the Haitian workers then challenged Rémy Cointreau to face up to its responsibilities in Haiti by sending a fact-finding mission to the workplaces and make a genuine attempt to find out about and address the workers' grievances. They also suggested that the company should finance independent monitors to report on what was really happening on the ground.
Charriaud responded positively to these suggestions but said that he was not authorised to take such decisions and needed to consult with other Rémy Cointreau managers.
The Haitian workers' unions, Batay Ouvriye, and the international solidarity groups across the world, are now waiting for a reply from Rémy Cointreau to see if the company is genuinely interested in resolving the dispute or is just engaged in further delaying tactics. In light of the volume of sales of the Cointreau liqueur at Christmas-time, the campaigners have decided to wait no more than two weeks for Rémy Cointreau to reply, and, if no satisfactory answer is given by then, to re-launch the campaign to hold the company accountable for the exploitation of Haitian workers.
Meanwhile, in Haiti on 8th November, the Platform to Advocate for Alternative Development (PAPDA) held a solidarity meeting in support of the Guacimal workers. Around 60 students, journalists and members of the popular movement attended and heard the PAPDA spokesperson, Camille Chalmers propose the forming of a committee in solidarity with the Guacimal workers and the publicising of the negative consequences of globalisation.
The spokesperson for Batay Ouvriye in northern Haiti stressed the determination of the Guacimal workers to struggle against their exploitation in spite of the continuing and fierce repression that they are experiencing. He also pointed out that the dispute was being perpetuated by leading representatives of the Haitian oligarchy, the Zephyr brothers, who has economic interests that extended across that part of the country, notably in the coffee business. Another feature of the anti-worker offensive was the collusion of representatives of the Haitian State, in particular at the level of the regional office of the Ministry of Social Affairs.
After hearing a first hand testimony from a Guacimal union leader, the meeting agreed to intensify the campaign to denounce the exploitation carried out by Guacimal and Rémy Cointreau, both at home and abroad. The Batay Ouvriye spokesperson pointed out that a large global solidarity network already existed, and was particularly active in the UK through the Haiti Support Group, in France thanks to French trade unions, and in New York where Haitian activists had already organised a number of sit-ins and other demonstration in support of the Cointreau workers.
For background information on the orange workers' struggle see: