The battle to raise the Minimum Wage in Haiti

central america / caribbean | community struggles | press release Sunday June 14, 2009 09:02 by KOPA - Autonomous Committee of Progressive Haitians

An autonomous battle of workers and all working people!

Workers are demanding the ratification of a minimum wage adjustment of 200 Gourdes that the Haitian Parliament has passed since May 5th. Workers, for some time now, have been demanding a minimum wage hike. The Préval/Pierre-Louis administration is asking for another round of negotiations. This is just a political maneuver to demobilize workers, accompanied by a high level of repression, such as against the recent May Day marches and the June student rallies.

For many years, the ruling classes in Haiti, mainly the bourgeoisie, have mobilized the masses to achieve their own political objectives. With the help of imperialism, they mobilized working people to isolate reactionary governments that did not fully satisfy their interests. They made promises, peddling a fake social contract. Now, workers are demanding the ratification of a minimum wage adjustment of 200 Gourdes that the Haitian Parliament has passed since May 5th. Workers, for some time now, have been demanding a minimum wage hike. The Préval/Pierre-Louis administration is asking for another round of negotiations. This is just a political maneuver to demobilize workers, accompanied by a high level of repression, such as against the recent May Day marches and the June student rallies.

But Haitian workers are not in this fight alone. Haitian workers will get the support of their international brothers and sisters and of all progressives who are ready to break radically from bourgeois politics. We, the workers and all working people, are not just here to vote for bank bailouts. We are here to defend our own interests. We must defend our right to have good jobs and earn fair wages so we can provide for the needs of our families.

The minimum wage adjustment in Haiti is 5 years overdue. It’s only a partial adjustment, IT IS NOT A HIKE. Based on the Haitian (reactionary) Labor Code it should be at least 450 Gourdes, not 200 Gourdes ($5 a day). This adjustment, although illegal, is a step forward to gain strength for more battles to come. This wage is only $0.62 an hour. No human being, even in Haiti, should have to live in such abject conditions while bourgeois capitalists live in luxury.

The mask is down. Haitian workers are fighting for their autonomous interests. This not a battle over which politician, which brand of populism, or which lackey of imperialism is going to lead them. This is a battle being waged to wrest back profits and surplus value exploited from their labor. The Haitian bourgeoisie and imperialism, the occupying forces and the government have declared war on the Haitian working class and on the students who have joined them, most of whom know the plight of their parents being unable to earn a decent living.

The battle for a just minimum wage shows the true face of bourgeois democracy. Workers and all working peoples here in the belly of the beast, toiling in nursing homes, in hotels, and in factories, this battle is our battle too! The struggle of Haitian workers for their rights and the fight we are waging here for our rights are the same fight. It is all one battle. We need to build our autonomous organizations to defend our rights here. This is the first step in building
solidarity with our fighting brothers and sisters in Haiti.

Haitians immigrant workers, share this message with your brothers and sisters in Haiti: working here in a factory or in a nursing home is also hell! Exploitation is hell! The only difference is that our former struggles in this capitalist hellhole left us some rights that capitalists are again trying to take back from us. No bourgeois promises are worth hoping for. They are only peddlers of illusions. Our future depends on how we fight for what is ours!