Guacimal S.A. –Cointreau Subcontractor:

Unionized workers are physically threatened

(See summary at the end of this update)

This October, Batay Ouvriye contacted the Haiti Support Group, War on Want (in England) and the French solidarity group Réseau Solidarité, among others, in order to launch a solidarity campaign with the struggles of workers of Guacimal S.A., which furnishes orange bitters, one of the key ingredients in the French liqueur Cointreau. The situation however remains unchanged in many ways and has worsened in others. Rather than comply with Haitian law, management has engaged in various stalling tactics and a campaign of repression against union affiliated workers in order to avoid even minimal reforms in working conditions and salaries. The following is an update on this situation.

Guacimal, St Raphaël : (a small locality in the northern region of Haiti, where the orange plantations are located, on which about 300 plantation workers are employed in the harvesting of bitter oranges) –

On Tuesday November 21, 2000, Jean-Marie St. Fleur, the plantation supervisor returning from a management meeting at Cap-Haitien (a major city in the North of Haiti), met with the 9 plantation watchmen. Immediately following this meeting a rumor started to spread: a major crackdown on union organizers had been ordered by management for the following week, and any worker suspected of being a union sympathizer was to be beaten up. This rumor was a major cause of concern since the unionization drive had already met with systematic persecution and harassment from management. As soon as the union had been formed and a list of grievances and demands presented, the management of Guacimal S.A. had dispatched the rural police and a Justice of the Peace to disband the union. The determination of the workers, the legality of their demands and the justness of their grievances were the only factors which allowed them to withstand this effort to bust their union and to stop the threats of imprisonment and beatings.

Management then contacted the Labor Ministry (Ministère des Affaires Sociales et du Travail) to have it dispatch a high level delegation on October 25 and 28 to the Guacimal plantation in order to contest the legality of the union. The Labor Ministry ruled that the union, which was made up of share-croppers working as crop-pickers and salaried crop-pickers, had to reconstitute its committee as a pre-condition to any negotiations. Despite this stalling tactic, on November 4th, the Ministry of Labor was advised by the union that a new committee had been formed and that negotiations with management were to proceed.

Meanwhile, management met with the plantation watchmen and warned them of any collaboration with the union. A rumor spread that 2 of the watchmen had accepted a bribe to engage in union busting activities. Throughout the month of November, the harassment of union leaders and members continued. All those workers identified as such were threatened with beatings, prevented from working and ejected from the plantation. On November 16, a worker who had climbed up a tree to harvest oranges was forced down and threatened by Jean-Marie St Fleur, the plantation supervisor. This supervisor then yelled at him: "You think you have rights, you think you can rule? Don't you know that no one has ever seen non-alphabetized people have reason 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 now, Mr. St. Fleur has prevented the collection trucks from picking up any of the oranges harvested by workers affiliated with the union. A separate collection point has been set up, to which the collection trucks have been redirected, where the watchmen along with a new squad of scab workers are proceeding with the harvest. It should be noted that previously the watchmen did not take part in harvesting the oranges. This is a new tactic to encourage union busting.

However the union is undaunted and it is determined to persevere in its just and legal fight. Workers continue to be denied their legal benefits. For instance, the family of Mrs. Liciane Desarmes, who passed away after working on the plantation for numerous years, has yet to receive any compensation or pension, as provided under Haitian law. Edyano St. Fleur, who has just retired, is only receiving a pittance for his pension.

Because of this situation, the union has decided on a work stoppage to begin this Monday, November 27, 2000 in order to compel management to recognize its demands and grievances, and to engage in good faith negotiations. To date, management has refused to negotiate with the union, and has refused even to acknowledge the decision of the workers to engage in a work stoppage, which was communicated to them on November 22

Guacimal, Madeline : (This is where the orange processing plant is located, employing about 3 dozen workers)

Much like at St. Raphael, 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 in the beginning of November of a Cointerau representative, (a Mr. Morino, who was escorted by management on a brief tour of the plant and who was prevented from engaging in any dialogue with the workers…). Quite to the contrary, the plant's management seems to be determined to punish the workers for their union affiliation.

Thus, during the week of November 20th, management decided to discipline workers for any absence. Traditionally, employment at the Madeline plant has been passed on gradually 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, has suddenly declared that this practice would no longer be allowed, and that substitute workers must be alternated so that sick workers must now be replaced by different subs each day. The aim of this provision is to introduce replacement workers as a union busting measure, particularly to thwart workers at Madeline from taking any leave to coordinate their struggles with the workers in St. Raphael. Considering that only 32 workers are employed at Madeline, the introduction of permanent replacements in cases of absence is a particularly harsh measure. 2 workers, Mompoint and Eva Petit-Frere who are on sick leave are particularly affected by this measure and are in jeopardy of losing their jobs.

It is clear that in both instances, in Guacimal and at Madeline, management is using replacement "yellow" workers for union busting purposes. Similarly, the union at Madeline was forced to restructure its negotiating committee because management refused to recognize its 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 workers (although this equipment was simply diverted from other workers at the Marnier-Lapostolle plantation, a plantation also under the direction of the same management group). When the workers demanded to know why it took so long for them to be provided with this equipment which seemed to be so readily available, management's answer was that "they didn't have a union yet…"

When the union put forward a demand for a wage increase from 11 cents (US) to 80 cents (US) per container of oranges processed, 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). Since then, no progress has been made at the Madeline plant. Management's promises to provide for showers and the repair of toilets and of the general conditions in the plant have remained unfulfilled. Faced with management's intransigence and the continued harassment of workers affiliated with the union, the workers at Madeline have decided on a work stoppage to begin on Monday, November 27. At this stage of the struggle it is crucial that the workers at Madeline and at Guacimal be able to closely coordinate their actions. However, this coordination is particularly difficult because of the distance between the plant at Madeline and the plantation at Guacimal, and the harsh measures that have been implemented to punish absentees.

§

The principals of these establishments are Nonce and Daniel Zephir. Together, these 2 brothers operate various agro-export enterprises in the Cap-Haitian region for their aging uncle, Jacques Novella, a French citizen and the owner of the Novella Enterprises. These enterprise were traditionally involved in the coffee trade, but are now engaged in more diverse agro-ventures, such as the processing of orange bitters.

The management of these enterprises has inherited feudal and colonial practices of complete disregard for workers rights and Haitian law, along with an avaricious nature. These same 2 Zephir brothers also run the Marnier-Lapostolle plantation in the Cap-Haitian region which supplies these orange bitters to the Grand Marnier Company for the production of Grand Marnier Liqueur. When after a year-long struggle, unionized workers at the Marnier-Lapostolle plantations, at the behest of the Grand Marnier Company (as a result of an international solidarity  campaign), won significant concessions affecting working conditions and a wage increase, Daniel Zephir delayed the payment of these wage increases in order to speculate on currency fluctuations, reaping a net profit amounting to about $11,000 per year.

However, these ruthless businessmen are agents and overseers of giant multi-national concerns such as Grand Marnier and Cointreau. Since these agents are acting under the directives of these giants of international luxury good production, these companies must then be also held liable for the deplorable working conditions of the Haitian workers and their miserly wages. It must be noted that the workers not only have to endure the harsh tropical conditions, but that the extraction of orange bitters exposes them to acids which attack their nails and hands, and damages their lungs. Therefore, we urge all those who are outraged by these blatant injustices and all those who are repulsed by the practices of harassment, threats and arbitrary measures of repression aimed at union busting to write to the principals of these corporations to express their demands that this situation be immediately remedied, so that workers lives no longer be put in jeopardy simply for demanding living wages and humane working conditions.

Ø       Cointreau, One World Trade Center, 107th Floor, New York, NY 10048, phone  212-524-7000, fax 212-524-7016, Email <joelle.jezequel@remy-cointreau.com>

Ø       M. Pierre Cointreau, Président, Société Cointreau, Carrefour Molière, 49124, St BARTHELEMY D'ANJOU, FRANCE

Ø       Dominique Hériard Dubreuil, Groupe Rémy Cointreau, 152, avenue des  Champs-Élysées, 75008 Paris, FRANCE

Ø       Daniel et Nonce ZEPHIR - Directeurs, Société Agricole Produits Guacimal S.A.,  BP 53, Cap-Haïtien, Haïti

Please cc your protest letters and solidarity messages to Batay Ouvriye, P.O. Box 13326, Delmas, Haiti (W.I.) Email <BatayOuvriye@hotmail.com>

A brief summary:

1- About 300 plantation workers at the Guacimal plantations and 32 workers at the Madeline processing plant have unionized in order to negotiate a wage increase representing a living wage, the respect of their rights under Haitian Law, and humane working conditions.

2- Workers have to endure horrid working conditions severely affecting their health and are paid miserly wages.

3- These enterprises (Guacimal S.A.) are run by the Zephir brothers solely for the production of orange bitters, a key ingredient in the Cointreau liqueur, an expensive luxury liqueur manufactured from these orange bitters by Cointreau, a multi-national company based in France, with yearly revenues of over US $107 million (1999).

4- Since the union was formed earlier this year, workers affiliated with the union have come under constant threats of beatings and dismissal, and are continually harassed and persecuted by management, often relying on local authorities.

5- Management has refused to negotiate in good faith and has used stalling tactics, threats, intimidation, arbitrary measures and replacement workers to attempt to break the union.

6- The workers have declared a work stoppage beginning this Monday, November 27, to compel management to negotiate in good faith.

7- An urgent appeal for international solidarity is launched to support their struggles.

Please note that this is not a call for a boycott and that the minimum workers demands of both unions at Madeline and at Guacimal include:

1- A wage increase to US $0.80 per container of oranges harvested or processed. This represents a bare minimum living wage in Haiti.

2- Tools and equipment necessary to harvest and process orange bitters (appropriate gloves, boots, masks, ladders and equipment to protect against bee stings…)

3- Adherence to the Haitian Labor Code in matters concerning vacations, pensions, overtime pay, healthcare, work regulations, and the availability of clean toilets, showers…

4- The respect of the right of workers to organize unions and bargain collectively.