(edited by the Haiti Support Group.)

Madeline, in northern Haiti, is where Guacimal's orange processing plant is located. It is here that oranges grown on plantations in St Raphaël and elsewhere, are halved and put into an extracting unit which separates the essential oil used to produce the Cointreau liqueur from the rest of the orange. About three dozen workers are employed at Guacimal-Madeline.

Members of the Guacimal-Madeline union

In September 2000, the newly formed union of workers at Guacimal-Madeline was forced to restructure its negotiating committee because the Guacimal management refused to recognise the union's delegate. After an ensuing delay of about one month, negotiations at the end of October led to an agreement to improve work conditions by supplying gloves, knives and face masks to the workers. When the workers demanded to know why it had taken so long for them to be provided with this equipment which seemed to be so readily available, management's answer was that "they hadn't had a union then."

Since then, much like at St Raphaël, the management has used intimidation and stalling tactics to forestall having to comply with Haitian law. There has been no significant improvement in the plight of the workers, despite a renewed international solidarity campaign and the visit at the beginning of November of a Cointreau representative. (Mr. Morineau was escorted by management on a brief tour of the plant and was prevented from engaging in any dialogue with the workers.) On the contrary, the plant's management seems to be determined to punish the workers for their union affiliation.

Thus, during the week of 20 November, management decided to discipline workers for any absence. Traditionally, employment at the Madeline plant has been passed on from father to son and from mother to daughter. This allowed sick workers to be temporarily replaced by their family members during their illness. The plant supervisor, Philippe Mompoint, suddenly declared that this practice would no longer be allowed, and that sick workers must now be replaced by different substitutes each day. The aim of this provision is to introduce replacement workers as a union-busting measure, and in particular to thwart workers at Madeline from taking any leave to coordinate their struggles with the workers in St Raphaël. Considering that only 32 workers are employed at Madeline, the introduction of permanent replacements in cases of absence is a particularly harsh measure.

In negotiations in November, the union put forward a demand for a wage increase from 11 US cents to 80 US cents per container of oranges processed. The management's answer was to offer an insignificant 5 cents increase. (During the harvest period teams of 2 to 3 workers process an average of 20 containers of oranges per day). Management's promises to provide showers, repair toilets and improve the general conditions in the plant remained unfulfilled.

Faced with management's intransigence and the continued harassment of workers affiliated with the union, in mid-December, the Madeline union called a work stoppage. While the union's management committee travelled to Cap-Haïtien to ask the Ministry of Social Affairs to intervene, the factory manager took advantage of their absence to intimidate the remaining workers by tipping whole oranges into the extraction unit before they had been cut in half. Note that normally in the factory the inadvertent adding of whole oranges to the unit is severely reprimanded.) This very clear threat to dismiss those who cut the oranges, coupled with physical intimidation of the striking workers, forced them to call a halt to their work stoppage, although they determined to relaunch their struggle at a later date.

During the month of January, the union of workers at Guacimal-St Raphaël courageously maintained their strike, and the workers at Madeline only cut some oranges harvested in areas around Cap-Haïtien. Guacimal owner, Daniel Zéphir, announced that he would never meet with the union at St Raphaël and would only meet the Madeline union, and attempted to drive a wedge between the two unions by suggesting the strike at St Raphaël was the reason for the lack of work at Madeline. He largely succeeded in this attempt to break the union as many people then chose not to attend the Madeline union meetings.

On 7 February, Daniel Zéphir told the workers at Madeline that he was waiting for his President, referring to Gérard Gourgue, the Democratic Convergence's symbolic president in opposition to President Aristide. He told them that if they wanted to get paid that day, the day of the presidential inauguration, they should ask "their father, Aristide". Later on, for the Carnival days of 26 and 27 February, the same thing happened. Just as he had refused to pay the workers for the official holidays of 1 and 2 January, Zéphir refused to pay wages on these days.

Although the workers protested, along with the workers at Zéphir's other businesses in St Raphaël and Cap-Haïtien who were not paid either, Zéphir refused to hear them, declaring the file closed. He cited article 114 of the fair labour standards act, which does not envisage these payments for seasonal workers. On the other hand, article 112 of the same act stipulates that any permanent worker must profit from it, and it is easy for the owners to temporarily declare a 'dead' season in order to avoid paying wages for public holidays.

In May, at Guacimal Madeline, work stopped for the season. The management has affected a pretence of reason by recognising the existence of the trade union and meeting them on some occasions. Latrines have been installed. But despite everything in this season 2000-2001, nothing serious has been resolved. The wage increase - from 2.75 to 4.00 gourdes i.e. from 11 to 16 US cents per case of oranges treated - was ridiculous.

On top of this, the union was scandalised, when, as usual at the end of the work season, workers claimed their yearly loan (generally a meagre two hundred Haitian dollars, meaning less than US$ 50) and were informed they would have to sign for it in front of a public notary. Many refused, interpreting this as a further maneuver on the part of the management to indebt them forever and to engage their families in case of their death. Note that these loans have never been defaulted on in the past.

There are rumors that the factory may be moved to St Raphaël, but they have not been confirmed. In light of the recent events there, this seems highly unlikely; nevertheless, there is some anxiety at Madeline.

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

For background information on the orange workers' struggle see:
The Haiti Support Group web site campaigns section

and

Multinational Monitor's Winning Campaigns:"Haiti's Thirst for Justice" :