HAITI: Government in Bind over Wages

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

NEW YORK, Sep 30 1996 (IPS) - U.S. labour groups are pressing for higher wages for Haitian workers, but Haiti’s government officials say such demands may adversely affect their bid to attract foreign investment.

Haitian Foreign Minister Fritz Longchamps told IPS here that President Rene Preval’s government would like to see higher wages for workers. But, he said, Port-au-Prince could not endanger the investment that U.S. multinationals could provide at a time when the nation is desperately short of funds.

“Haiti has to compete with other countries of the region to attract foreign capital,” Longchamps said, noting that one of its advantages is wages that are relatively low compared to other Caribbean and Central American countries.

“If Haiti is going to attract foreign capital, it has to consider wages in those countries,” he argued.

But several U.S.-based groups, including the New York’s National Labour Committee and the textile workers union UNITE, are seeking higher wages for workers, including the predominantly female employees of subcontractors of the Walt Disney Company.

According to the labour groups, workers for Disney subcontractors are paid about 28 cents an hour, roughly the Haitian legal minimum wage. But they contend that the legal wage is too low for workers to live on, and they are prodding Disney to insist that its subcontractors pay at least 58 cents an hour, or about five dollars for a regular working day.

Haitian wages “are at the bottom of the barrel,” argued Ray Laforest, a New York union organiser who leads the Disney/Haiti Justice Committee. “The workers have one meal for the day, and go from debt to debt.”

Longchamps concedes that for many Haitians, the minimum wage is insufficient for their survival. “You can have a moral case, but not a legal case,” he added.

For Haiti, the problem is particularly acute since the country’s per capita gross domestic product of about 250 dollars makes it the poorest nation in the hemisphere.

The poor condition of everything from phone services to water facilities hinders efforts to attract investment, Longchamps said.

When the 1991-94 reign of the military regime ended in Haiti, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) advised Haitians to create a macro-economic framework that would spur investment. When he took office in March, Preval stepped up efforts to move towrds goals set by the lending institution.

But companies like Disney are exploiting that effort by profiting from some of the region’s lowest wages and poorest working conditions, Laforest charges. “Disney is benefiting from (the post-coup) climate,” he argued.

He complained that workers for Disney subcontractors face high production quotas and workplaces where food is expensive and clean drinking water is scarce, charges Disney denies.

“Disney is not an actual employer down there,” a spokesman for the company told IPS, speaking on condition of anonymity. “We have contacted (Disney) licensees and work continuously with them to make sure they are doing the right thing there.”

But Ellen Braune, a spokesperson for the National Labour Committee, told IPS that Disney has refused to consider proposals to prod its subcontractors to pay even 58 cents an hour. “It’s still not a living wage,” she said of current working conditions.

However, the campaign for higher wages in Haiti does not reflect the reality on the ground there, Longchamps said. “I don’t think we can afford to wait until such time as the wages in Haiti are comparable to the economy in the United States,” the foreign minister said.