The history of corporations in the Republic of Haiti
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- Rice Corporation of Haiti (RCH)
- Special Issue Report, [1 November 1995]. The U.S.-owned Rice
Corporation of Haiti, whose parent company has
a virtual
monopoly
on rice imports. As Haiti confronts extraordinary
pressures from USAID, the World Bank, IDB and IMF to reform
its economy through structural adjustments, RCH provides a
timely example of the kind of project which U.S. corporations
are encouraged—and often funded—to conduct
under the banners of privatization, democracy enhancement
and humanitarian assistance.
- Transnationals and agribusiness in
Haiti
- A dialog from Bob Corbett's Haiti list, 28 February
1996. Brief responses to a request for sources of
information on U.S. food policy in Haiti over the past
decade, specifically foreign transnationals—both food
and agriculture and NON food and agriculture
transnationals.
- Conyers calls for Haiti solidarity
- Labor Alerts/Labor News, 2 October 1997. Regarding the decision
of the Walt Disney contractors, the H. H. Cutler Company, to
relocate its operations from Haiti to China. Sweatshop, child
labor, and workers' rights.
- Disney/Nike Contractor Leaves Haiti for
China
- Campaign for Labor Rights, Action Alert, 8 August 1998. H.H.
Cutler is planning to pull production out of Haiti to relocate
to China. More than 2,000 badly needed jobs in Haiti could be
lost. H.H. Cutler (a division of VF Corporation, one of the
world's largest apparel companies) has sewn clothing in
Haiti for the last several years under contract with the
Walt Disney Company and Nike.
- Disney/Haiti workers threatened
- Labor Alerts, 26 October 1998. Concerning the Megatex factory
in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, which produces clothing for the
Disney company. The worker organization, Batay Ouvriye,
reports that a factory supervicor threatened two union
members at Megatex with firing and violence.
- No work at Megatex; no answer from
Disney
- Campaign for Labor Rights,
Labor Alerts,
16 May
1999. Megatex, a factory in Port-au-Prince which
manufacturers clothing for Disney and other brands and
which has been the focus of several previous labor
alerts. The entire export production sector is spiraling
down. Foreign capital is deserting the country. The
company remains silent.
- Haiti private sector decries ‘climate
of terror’
- By Michael Deibert, Reuters, 24 November 2002. In
another blow to embattled President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide, Haiti's largest private sector association
blamed
high authorities
for allowing a climate
of terror.
The business group calls for the arrests of
some government supporters.
- Betting on its brand name, Hilton sees a
future in Haiti: Poor economy, protests fail to dim
chain's vision
- By Marika Lynch, The Miami Herald, Friday
20 December 2002. The walls are to be 15 feet tall in the
planned Hilton D'Haiti in Port-au-Prince. The
196-unit, $52.5 million complex is shooting for a 2005
opening. The Hilton D'Haiti hopes to attract
business people seeking to slip into the country and avoid
the trek—and the safety risks—of heading
downtown.
- Farmers forced out as global brands build
Haiti free-trade area
- By Jacqui Goddard, Ouanaminthe, Haiti, The Sunday
Times, 6 July 2003. The Maribahoux Plain is one of
Haiti's most fertile agricultural regions. Located
on Haiti's border with the Dominican Republic, it
has a production capacity enough to feed half a million
people. But under a scheme funded by the World Bank, 54
peasant farmers have been evicted to free up land for an
industrial Free Trade Zone (FTZ).
- Levi Strauss moving to Haiti; N. American
plants closing in March
- By Don Thomas, The Edmonton Journal,
Saturday 4 October 2003. Levi Strauss closing its North
American plants and ramping up production in Third World
countries, including Haiti, the poorest nation in the
western hemisphere. With help from the World Bank, Grupo
M, the Dominican Republic's largest employer, has
opened a plant in a free trade zone in nearby Haiti.
- Labor Abuses At CINTAS Producing Factory in
Haiti
- UNITE, [21] October 2003. The working conditions of the
women garment workers at a Cintas subcontractor, Haitian
American Apparel Co. S.A. (or as workers call it,
HAACOSA). Severe violation of Haitian Labor Codes and
International Labor Standards, as well as Cintas'
own Code of Conduct.