| More union-busting in north Haiti
(For more details on this story see World Food Programme busts warehousemen's union in Cap-Haïtien) According to information received from the First of May Batay Ouvriye union federation, one of its member unions, the Union of Warehousemen at the World Food Programme depot in Cap-Haïtien, was busted at the beginning of the month. On Thursday October 4, 2001, the Cap-Haïtien-based branch of the World Food Programme in Haiti ordered 32 security guards, backed up by several cars full of police officers and two trucks of anti-riot police to their depots to oversee the illegal firing of 24 warehousemen. These men, who are responsible for distributing the food supplies of the World Food Programme's school cafeterias programme in the north of Haiti, had committed the 'crime' of forming a union. At root of the hostile breaking of the union is an August 2000 Cap-Haïtien court decision relating to the violent harassment and beating up of three union organisers some months earlier. The court ruled that Julien Petit-Frère, Renard Séide and Serge Fleurant (all members of the union committee) had suffered ill treatment and physical violence at the hands of Frantz Mésidor (storekeeper of the World Food Programme warehouses in Cap-Haïtien) and agents of the Quisqueya Sécurité company. Mésidor and a Quisqueya Sécurité leader, both of them Haitians, were sentenced to three months in jail and ordered to pay a hundred and fifty thousand gourdes (US$6,000) in damages to the victims. Neither part of the court order were ever enforced. The more immediate source of hostile anti-union action appears to be connected to two issues. Firstly, the warehousemen's union was recently informed that a job that normally paid 10,000 gourdes (US$400) would henceforth be paid 2,000 gourdes. The resulting discontent of union members led the local World Food Programme (WFP) management to call in outside workers who agreed to carry out the work at one fifth of the normal price. Thereafter, persistent rumours circulated that the WFP had decided to get rid of the union. Secondly, the WFP management appears deeply opposed to the union's attempts to gain compensation for workers who suffer injuries at work. According to the union, some of its members had worked in the WFP depots for over ten years, and on this basis (quite apart from the legal entitlements of workers according to local and international labour legislation) the union recently sought compensation for one worker who suffered an accident at work (he lost a toe). Another worker who recently had his leg broken at work had not received any compensation at all. It seems that in response to the union's legitimate concerns relating to the above two issues, and because of continuing agitation around the August 2000 court decision in favour of the union, the local WFP, in conjunction with local Cap-Haïtien authorities, decided to break the union. On Friday, October 5th 2001, the day after the deployment of security guards and police to keep union members out of the depots, a notice was put up on the depot buildings summoning union members to the local Ministry of Social Affairs office in order to receive severance pay. The union members had been arbitrarily dismissed. Several union members took the severance pay, even though it was seriously beneath the admissible figure. Others refused to take the money. On 8th October, the union published an open letter to the WFP international offices detailing the developments, and announcing, "We refuse to accept these illegal and absolutely invalid dismissals." The open letter continued, "We inform the local, national and international community that we will continue to present ourselves at our workplaces as normal, because it is unbearable for us to think that, by giving in, it would pave the way for the total impunity of the 'humanitarian' community throughout the world." Two days later, 10th October, a unit of the Haitian National Police - the Unité Départementale pour le Maintien de l'Ordre (UDMO), a Swat Team of special forces, arrived at the WFP depot. These heavily armed police, dressed in riot gear, dispersed the union members who were posted at the gate, and ushered new workers into the depot. The union members were obliged to back off, and, in the words of the First of May Batay Ouvriye union federation "at present it appears that indeed the WFP union has been squashed for no reason!" The Haiti Support Group calls upon the World Food Programme to intervene with the Cap-Haïtien management's and to see that the members of the Warehousemen's Union are reinstated. The World Food Programme should respect local and international labour legislation that gives workers the right to unionise and to negotiate pay and conditions with the management. The Haiti Support Group calls on the Haitian government to investigate how a unit of the Haitian National Police came to be involved in the denial of workers' legitimate rights. Finally, the Haiti Support Group calls on the Haitian government to take immediate steps to remedy these wrongs, and to support the legitimate rights and aspirations of workers across the northern department and the country as a whole. Letters of protest can be sent by email to
Mr. Lucia Echecopar, World Food Programme (WFP) Country Director, Haïti, |