On the 200 Gourdes per Day ($5.61 per Day or 70¢ per Hour) Minimum Wage Adjustment

On the 200 Gourdes per Day ($5.61 per Day or 70¢ per Hour) Minimum Wage Adjustment

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BATAY OUVRIYE

On the 200 Gourdes per Day ($5.61 per Day or 70¢ per Hour) Minimum Wage Adjustment

In April 2003, when the Haitian Government last adjusted the minimum wage to 70 gourdes per day, we already showed how this adjustment was clearly inadequate: “…When we take into account the rise in the cost of living since 1995, the minimum wage should be adjusted to at least 7.5 times 36 gourdes, to 270 gourdes per day. If, we also take into account the devaluation of the gourde relative to the US Dollar, then the minimum wage should be adjusted to at least 300 gourdes per day. And then, this would simply be an adjustment, not a raise. When we realize that the working class particularly has become more and more skilled, this skill level entitles it to a proportional wage increase, to between 350 and 400 gourdes per day, which should be the minimum wage!”


These figures also correspond to Article 137 of the Labor Code, which stipulates that the minimum wage should be adjusted proportionally each time there is a cost of living increase of 10% or more in a fiscal year. And all this does not take into account rising costs of health care due to increasingly poor living conditions, and urban spread which leads to higher transportation costs, among many other factors which mean that workers need a real wage increase.



Steven Benoit, a member of the Haitian parliament, has sponsored a bill which would raise the minimum wage to 200 gourdes and would also seek to regulate the periodic adjustment of the minimum wage due to inflation. In his press releases, this member of parliament has shown how his proposal is based on a minimum living wage.



There are two statements we would like to make regarding this pending legislation: firstly, Article 137 of the Labor Code already stipulates how the minimum wage should to be adjusted relative to inflation, although adding other criteria which would bolster cost of living adjustments would a positive. But Article 137 has never been respected (which makes the State and the bourgeoisie completely illegal!- but as workers we already know that). Secondly, as we have already shown, a minimum wage adjustment to 200 gourdes is clearly insufficient, although we should not reject any wage increase. That is why we are calling on all workers to support this legislation and make it law. It would relieve some of the misery that we as workers are subjected to as part of what the Haitian bourgeoisie claims is its “comparative advantage”, which is going to save the country! We should mobilize in support of a minimum wage increase to 200 gourdes, but also right away we should fight for more, in ways that correspond to our abilities in each enterprise.



The bourgeoisie and its representatives have already begun to protest Steven Benoit’s pending legislation, arguing that a minimum wage increase would stimulate inflation. Of course, in their argument they neglect to mention that labor is already a commodity in this capitalist system, and that it is precisely because the price of all other commodities has risen that a worker’s wage also needs to increase.



In some areas of the country, workers are already earning more than 70 gourdes ($1.96 per day or 25¢ per hour). Daily laborers at Marnier-Lapostolle, near Cap Haitien , because of their constant struggle through their union, SOML-BO, (Sendika Ouvriye Manye Lapostòl, Batay Ouvriye) have ensured a yearly cost of living wage adjustment, and today they earn 345 gourdes daily ($9.67). Therefore, it’s possible! It’s possible through our struggles, but it’s also possible for companies to maintain their profitability while paying these wages. But in order to get there, we had to bypass the Zephyr brothers in our negotiations. These Haitian capitalists, acting as local representatives of Grand Marnier, the French liqueur company, were completely opposed to wage increases, pretending that they would drive the company out of business, while Grand Marnier itself was willing to adjust wages. Since then, these wage adjustments have been put into effect, through the efforts of the workers to negotiate directly with the foreign owners. But not only have their wages been periodically adjusted to the cost of living, to 345 gourdes daily, but also, the workers of SOML-BO also get yearly bonuses, as mandated by law, paid sick days, maternity leaves, a clean cafeteria, toilets and showers, a health clinic with medicines and a nurse, a car for emergency transportation, clean cool drinking water, and most importantly, the workers now are no longer subjected to demeaning disrespectful mistreatment from their supervisors and managers, as is generally the case in Haiti.



So once again, it’s possible! And we should pay no mind to capitalist economists or their paid-off politicians who are trying to convince us of the opposite. Through its staunch opposition to Article 137 of the Labor Code and to any minimum wage adjustment, even though insufficient, the Haitian bourgeoisie has shown its anti-popular and anti-national nature. We can also see clearly that their so called “economic development plan” is based squarely on our misery as workers. Only through our struggles can we change this!



For all these reasons stated above, that is why we demand that the proposed minimum wage adjustment to 200 gourdes be enacted immediately, and that additionally:

-the state also place a ceiling on the price of basic necessities
-the state also regulate the exchange rate between the gourde and the dollar so that workers don’t get cheated when we get paid in gourdes
-the wages of all workers who already earn more than the 70 gourdes minimum wage be adjusted proportionally to the minimum wage increase
-the Department of Labor (Ministry of Social Affairs) put in place adequate structures to enforce the adjustment of the minimum wage retroactive from the date it takes effect. (It took many, many struggles to ensure the respect of the last increase to 70 gourdes!)


All workers must join as one, mobilizing in these partial struggles, and continue to struggle against the limitless exploitation of the imperialists, the ruling classes and their reactionary state!

Our struggle has just begun!

Let’s fight on for our rights!

Batay Ouvriye

October 2007

(As of October 1, 2007 the exchange rate was 1 USD = 35.6445 HTG. Inflation has been averaging around 12-15% per year over the last decade)