Batay Ouvriye - gewerkschaftliche Organisationsversuche auf dem Land

Vor oder nach dem Sturz Aristides - der Versuch, auf den Farmen der Großgrundbesitzer zu organisieren ist auch auf Haiti gefährlich. Über die Aktivitäten der unabhängigen Gewerkschaftsströmung Batay Ouvriye auf dem Land und in den freihandelszonen ein kurzer aktueller (französischer, mit deutscher Zusammenfassung) Bericht "Workers organisation" der "Haiti Support Group" vom 14. Juli 2005

Worker Organisation

Haiti Briefing readers will recall that in June 2004, over 350 workers employed to assemble Levi jeans were dismissed from the Grupo M factory in the CODEVI free trade zone (FTZ) because of their union activities. An international solidarity campaign helped achieve an agreement between the union, Socowa, and the CODEVI management in February 2005, but citing a shortage of jobs the management failed to reinstate those 154 workers who still wanted to return to work.

However, in late March, the Levi Strauss company increased its orders by 25% and, in April, Wrangler, the daughter company of giant US-based textile company, VF Corporation, submitted new orders. By June, Batay Ouvriye, which works to support the Socowa union, reported that a second factory had opened to deal with the increase in orders, and over 100 workers had been re-instated. A further 17 sacked workers will imminently be reinstated, leaving just 31 checkers and assistants for whom there are still no openings.

In the north-eastern border town of Ouanaminthe, where the CODEVI FTZ is based, Batay Ouvriye's slender resources were stretched thin in May when the Dominican Army deported thousands of people. Many of these people - Haitians and black Dominicans - were dumped across the border from the Dominican Republic at Ouanaminthe, and Batay Ouvriye has been trying to provide what assistance it can to these destitute deportees.

In other news, a new FTZ at Drouillard, near Cité Soleil in Port-au- Prince, is nearly ready to open. However it would seem that even if the infrastructure is ready to allow assembly factories to be set up, the continuing violence in that part of the capital will cause delays. Batay Ouvriye wants to open an office near the Drouillard FTZ so that it will be able to begin organising workers when it eventually opens for business.

Elsewhere, Batay Ouvriye is active in eight of the country's 10 administrative departments, but over the preceding year there has been a decrease in the organisation's activities, mainly as a consequence of a reduction in funding.

Repression of its activists has continued, with no difference before or after the departure of President Aristide. For agricultural labourers and small farmers, the grandons (big landowners) are still the problem. In April, in Mare Rouge in the north west, a Batay Ouvriye meeting was attacked by agents of a grandon - one person was killed, and another later died of his wounds.

Deutsche Zusammenfassung

Zunächst erinnert die HSG in ihrem Schreiben an den Kampf von batay zur Unterstützung der Legalisierung der Gewerkschaft Socowa bei CODEVI und an die Unterstützung der von der Armee Santo Domingos zwangsumgesiedelten Haitianer und Dominikaner - was beides die Ressourcen der Föderation, die inzwischen schon in 8 der 10 Bezirke des Landes organisiert ist, weiter reduziert hat, was sich auch in aktuellen Kampagnen bemerkbar macht - so eben bei dem Versuch, auf dem Lande zu organisieren.

Das war zu Zeiten von Aristide gefährlich - und ist es auch heute, denn die "Grandons" (Großgrundbesitzer) haben ihre Leute...die beispielsweise im April diesen Jahres in Mare Rouge eine versammlung von Batay überfallen haben, und dabei einen Teilnehmer töteten, ein weiterer erlag später seinen Verletzungen.

(hrw)