A success story from Haiti!

Current situation of the Sokowa union at the FTZ in Ouanaminthe, north-east Haiti - 21 March 2005

- by Charles Arthur - Haiti Support Group
The 5 February 2005 agreement negotiated between the Sokowa union and the Grupo M company that runs the CODEVI free trade zone in Ouanaminthe was a major triumph for the union and all its supporters. After seven months of endurance and determination on the part of the union, supported by a vigorous international campaign to put pressure on Grupo M and Levi's, the bosses agreed to the immediate re-instatement of five union leaders, and the progressive re-hiring of the 151 other people who still wanted to return to work in the factory. (In June 2004, over 350 workers - including all known leaders of the newly formed workers' union, Sokowa - had been fired from the FTZ's two factories where around 1,000 workers were employed to assemble Levi's jeans and t-shirts for export. It was a clear attempt to break the union.) As part of the February agreement, Grupo M also acknowledged the legitimacy of the Sokowa union, assured it of its full rights under Haitian law, and guaranteed never again to use armed security guards or other armed groups to intervene in labour disputes.

The workers' organisation, Batay Ouvriye, whose representative sat in on the mediated negotiations, described the agreement as "progress, a step forward", but warned that the workers must remain vigilant so that the "sentences written on paper are fully applied". Since then, Batay Ouvriye's skepticism has proved to be well-founded. The five Sokowa union leaders have returned to work, but no other workers have yet been reinstated. In fact, the reverse - a further 38 workers have been laid off because of a shortage of orders from Levi's!

Current solidarity action
The US Solidarity Center is coordinating some low-key pressure on Michael Kobori, Levi's Global Code of Conduct director, to let him know of concerns relating to Levi's non-action on increasing orders. The United Students Against Sweatshops did a phone blitz of messages to Kobori on 14 March, with a follow up email to establish the need to have some kind of real commitment the following week. His response was as follows: "I will try to get back to you early next week on where we are in the process, but it would be very optimistic for us to think that we will have a decision by then. I understand that you have your own timetable for action, but would ask for a little patience given that we have patiently kept engaged and supportive all these months for the negotiation." The Clean Clothes Campaign has followed suit with their own call to Kobori to let him know that people are restless, and won't wait much longer before taking more public action. Further action awaits the outcome of a Sokowa meeting on 20 March.

In the UK
The Battersea and Wandsworth trade union council (BWTUC) and the No Sweat organisation have made great efforts to provide funds to help support the Sokowa union over an extremely difficult period. Considering the large numbers of workers fired back in June, and the length of time it took before the management agreed to negotiate, this support has probably been crucial. The regular funds provided by the BWTUC have enabled Sokowa to not only survive but to prepare the ground for future organising of workers at the Codevi FTZ. Even though many union members were fired in June 2004 and remained out of work for months on end, they were not idle. Union members - both in work and out of work - met every Sunday to strategise and plan organising drives. One result of these meetings was that workers, their families, and their neighbours, have created self-help community associations in the urban areas of Ouanaminthe near to the FTZ. A current task of these associations is to provide basic neighbourhood security in the context of the absence of a police force and the presence of criminal gangs in the Ouanaminthe area.

The future
There are rumours that the VF Corporation - the world's biggest apparel company - is considering sending orders for Wrangler jeans to be assembled at the CODEVI FTZ. If this happens, it is assumed that many hundreds more workers will be hired. Sokowa will of course attempt to recruit them to the union. In the longer term, it is possible that the US Congress will pass the Haiti Economic Recovery and Opportunity (HERO) Act which would provide duty-free entry into the US for garments assembled in Haiti. If this happens many thousands more workers are expected to be employed in newly built factories in the CODEVI FTZ, and tens of thousands more hired to work in other planned FTZs where textiles would be assembled. Such a scenario would present both a challenge and an opportunity for Sokowa and the other combative unions yet to be founded.


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