While President Préval is in Washington DC to encourage US businesses...

central america / caribbean | workplace struggles | non-anarchist press Wednesday June 20, 2007 16:45 by AHP

...things are hotting up at home!!!!

President Rene Préval arrived in Washington on Monday to take part in a meeting between the US administration and presidents and heads of state from the Caribbean. The president and his delegation intend to lobby US businessmen on the advisability of investing in Haiti in the context of a significant reduction in insecurity.

However, a spate of new crises are developing. The national telephone company (Téléco) has been paralyzed for more than two weeks by a strike of employees who demand the departure of the director general, Michel Présumé, whom they accuse of ineptitude and bad management. They accuse him of sabotaging the institution so that it can be sold off cheaply when it is privatized. Despite the fact that the situation is deteriorating due to the fact that no Téléco services are functioning normally, the authorities are still not intervening to resolve or impose an end to the crisis, and the opposing parties are left in a stand-off. Meanwhile, telephone subscribers have been abandoned, and their broken telephone lines are not repaired. However, customers are used to this!

At the national electricity company (EDH), trade union members are denouncing intimidatory maneuvers aimed at preventing them from meeting to discuss the serous problems that have brought the institution to its knees and unable to distribute a basic supply. Meanwhile, the government's contract with the private company, Alstom, which supplements the electricity supply to the capital, is due to expire on 30 June, and nothing has been arranged to meet the shortfall. The trade union members are denouncing a scheme that aims to hand the EDH over to the private sector.

At the same time, there seems to have been no progress with the negotiations between the government and the transport workers unions whose 48-hour strike last week paralyzed the transport system. The unions are demanding a reversal of recent fuel price increases. The unions are threatening more strike action if this demand is not met. Meanwhile, there are rumours of a further price increase in the offing.

And that's not all - the ancillary workers at the main public hospital complex in the capital (HUEH) are on strike to demand the payment of several months back pay and to denounce threats of dismissal.


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