St. Raphaël is a small locality in the northern region of Haiti where the Haitian company, Guacimal SA, has orange plantations on which about 300 workers are employed in the harvesting of bitter oranges. These oranges are used in the manufacture of the famous Cointreau liqueur. Guacimal SA is part-owned by the French drinks giant, Rémy Cointreau.

At the beginning of October 2000, the St. Raphaël plantation workers registered as a union with the Haitian Ministry of Social Affairs, the state office that is charged with dealing with labour issues and regulating labour laws.

The Union of Guacimal-St. Raphaël Workers sent a list of its grievances and requests for improvements in wages and working conditions to the Guacimal management, but it was returned without even an acknowledgment of delivery. The management stuck to its position of disputing the legitimacy of the union on the grounds that some members of the union's executive committee were not registered with the company.

In mid-November, the problem with the membership of the union's executive committee was resolved by the union, yet the management still refused to meet and negotiate. Furthermore, the Ministry of Social Affairs still refused to recognize the union. (According to the Haitian workers' movement, Batay Ouvriye, the then Minister of Social Affairs is a close associate of the wife of the Guacimal owner, Nonce Zephir.)

Throughout the month of November, union leaders and members were harassed by the plantation overseer and his assistants. Those workers identified as union members were threatened with beatings, prevented from working and ejected from the plantation. On November 16, a worker who climbed up a tree to harvest oranges was forced down and threatened by Jean-Marie St. Fleur, the plantation overseer. St. Fleur yelled at him: "You think you have rights? You think you can rule? Don't you know that no one has ever seen illiterate people prevail over people with culture? Your union is made up of ignorant people. Foreign politics is the only thing keeping it alive."

Along the same lines, for about two weeks, St. Fleur prevented the collection trucks from picking up any of the oranges harvested by workers affiliated with the union. A separate collection point was set up, to which the collection trucks were redirected, and where the plantation security guards, along with a new squad of scab workers, proceeded with the harvest. It should be noted that previously the plantation guards did not take part in harvesting the oranges. This was a new union busting tactic.

At the end of November, in an attempt to compel the management to recognize its demands and grievances, and to engage in good faith negotiations, the Union of Guacimal-St. Raphaël Workers notified the Guacimal SA management of their intention to hold a work stoppage.

With no sign of any response from the management, in mid-December, the union went on strike.

The Ministry of Social Affairs, to which notice to go on strike had been communicated, responded with a letter that:
i) was addressed to the "so-called union";
ii) requested the union to enter into a process of negociation/conciliation; and
iii) pointed out that 1995 decree had fixed the daily minimum wage at 36 gourdes (little more than one US dollar!).

The union retorted with an immediate response to these points, stating that:
a) the negligence and incompetence of the State was at fault because the union had registered itself with the Ministry in early October (and reconstituted its executive committee in November) and had thus complied with Article 232 of the Haitian Labour Code (the obligation for a union to register with the Ministry within six months). Furthermore, as the law "encourages" the formation of trade unions, when the Ministry addressed their legal association as a "so-called union", it only betrayed its obvious bias;
b) the intention to begin a process of negociation/conciliation was precisely the reason for the strike, and it was the management that was refusing to begin such a process;
c) according to the Labor Code, the minimum wage is supposed to be linked to the cost of living, yet no adjustment had been made since it was set in 1995 despite a massive increase in the cost of food and other essential goods and services.
At this time, the plantation overseer, Jean-Marie St. Fleur, began to increase his travels back and forth between Cap-Haïtien and St. Raphaël, causing rumors to circulate among the plantation guards that the oranges would be harvested come what may, and that an attack on the union members was being prepared.

At the end of December, when a guard climbed an orange tree to harvest the fruit, the union members shouted out their disapproval. Coming down from the tree, the guard drew his machete and attacked the group of union members, wounding the union Secretary, Sintès Estimé. [A legal proceeding is currently underway against those involved in this act, as well as the overseer St. Fleur, who is regarded as the intellectual author of the attack because, only that morning, he had declared that the guards should harvest the oranges 'at any cost.']

The strike continued, despite pressures exerted by the local representative of the Ministry of Social Affairs, and the recently elected Lavalas Family mayor of St. Raphaël, Cernaud Sévère.

In February, the orange trees were at the point where harvesting could no longer be delayed, and the company management grew more impatient. The overseer, St. Fleur, let it be known that a negotiation meeting between the management and the union in Cap-Haïtien was envisaged. The union wrote to the management seeking confirmation, but nothing happened.

Then, in a gross act of interference, the Lavalas Family mayor, Sévère, announced that he was "exasperated by the Guacimal workers' individual complaints at his house," and ordered the resumption of the harvest during the last week of February - the tenth week of the strike.

For his part, St. Fleur, announced that no union member would be allowed back to work at the plantation. The announcement stirred such a spirited response from the workers that he was obliged to modify his position: at the most, the executive committee of the union and ten additional workers would be allowed to take part, but, in reprisal for the strike, all other union members were to be excluded. Despite everything, the union continued to resist this offensive until the end of the harvest, in March.

At the beginning of March, when a delegation of the British labor movement organization, War on Want, and the British GMB trade union arrived to meet with the union, the mayor intervened and demonstrated that he was violently opposed to any meeting with the unionized workers. The visiting delegation and workers were obliged to find another place to hold their meeting.

At the end of March, the harvest season had come to an end with a continuing anti-union atmosphere, without any negotiations, even less any improvement in the working conditions. To make matters worse, the Guacimal management is now victimizing union members by refusing to allocate parcels of plantation land for them to farm during the summer 'off season.' See the urgent action in support of the Cointreau workers' union

(translated from French and edited by Charles Arthur for the Haiti Support Group)

Cointreau workers - 17 May 2001

SUBJECT: Haiti - Cointreau orange workers and local farmers occupy a plantation in response to the latest episode in a sustained anti-union campaign.

The Haiti Support Group expresses its concern at reports of further anti-union measures at the Guacimal/Rémy Cointreau orange plantation at St. Raphaël in northern Haiti.

According to the Haitian workers’ movement, Batay Ouvriye, the plantation overseer, Jean-Marie St. Fleur, is discriminating against members of the union, the Syndicat des Ouvriers de Guacimal-St. Raphaël, in the allocation of land plots for the use of plantation workers and other local farmers.

Now, local peasant farmers and union members have occupied the plantation in an effort to force the managers to negotiate a settlement with the orange workers' union. International solidarity is needed to put pressure on Rémy Cointreau which can instruct its Haitian partners to resolve the dispute and negotiate with the union.

BACKGROUND

At the beginning of October 2000, St. Raphaël plantation workers registered as a union with the Haitian Ministry of Social Affairs, and sent a list of its grievances and requests for improvements in wages and working conditions to the Guacimal management. However, no negotiations took place, and, in mid-December, the union went on strike.

For ten weeks, the union members maintained the strike in the face of pressure and intimidation from the management, the Lavalas Family mayor of St. Raphaël, and the local representative of the Ministry of Social Affairs. During this time, the Guacimal SA management used the plantation overseer and his guards to intimidate and violently harass the union members. In one incident, a plantation guard attacked the union's leader with a machete.

At the end of February, the Lavalas Family mayor unilaterally intervened to break the strike, and the plantation overseer attempted to bar union members from returning to work. When the orange harvest ended at the end of March, the dispute had not been resolved, and the Guacimal SA management was still maintaining its refusal to negotiate with the legally established union.

Now, a new form of anti-union discrimination has caused the dispute to spread and involve local peasant farmers.

Each year, between April and August, there is an 'off season' when oranges are not harvested, and laid-off plantation workers, and other local people, are allowed to grow millet and corn on small plots of plantation land between the orange trees. Under the share-cropping system, half of any produce grown on the land is handed over to the landowners or managers. At the close of the harvest season this year, the plantation overseer, Jean-Marie St. Fleur, ordered the plantation watchmen to discriminate against union members when the land parcels were distributed.

When the discrimination against union members became apparent, the union allied itself with a recently formed planters' association composed of local farmers who also work the plantation land in the 'off season'. Together the two groups protested against the situation. However, the plantation guards not only ignored the protests, but on 20 April, Martial Compère, a plantation watchman, severely beat a child for having picked a couple of oranges.

In response, the planters' association, which includes several union members, occupied the Guacimal plantation on 27 April, demanding that the watchmen and overseer back off. They have declared they will no longer share half of their harvest with the plantation supervisors as had been the custom in the past, nor will they take orders from the present overseer or watchmen. They have declared that, though they have no intention of cutting down the orange trees, the management of Guacimal SA would be wise to come to negotiate an agreement with them.

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