The history of Haiti's orange plantation workers
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- Grand Marnier Orange Plantation Workers in
Haiti Need Solidarity
- Haiti Support Group, 4 February 2000. The London-based
Haiti The workers at the Marnier-Lapostelle orange
plantation in Haiti are trying to get a first contract and
something close to a living wage. The Union (Le Syndicat des
Ouvriers de Marnier-Lapostelle—Haiti) calls for
international solidarity to support its efforts to negotiate
improvements in pay and conditions at the orange tree
plantation in northern Haiti.
- Grand Marnier workers’ partial
victory
- By Charles Arthur, on behalf of the Haiti Support Group,
23 August 2000. Haiti support group and Batay Ouvriye backed
the Grand Marnier Workers Union in Haiti. The international
solidarity campaign has at last had an effect, a formal
document in which they laid down some provisions for a
minimal change regarding working conditions and wages,
starting as of July 31 2000.
- Urgent appeal on behalf of the Cointreau
workers’ union in Haiti
- From the Haiti Support Group, 25 October 2000. Workers on
the Cointreau orange plantation in northern Haiti must
endure pay and conditions that are unchanged in almost 150
years. Men and women make the minimum wage of 36 gourdes
(US$1.25). The factory is squalid. Working without gloves or
protective clothing, and lung complications are common. An
appeal for help.
- Workers fight for rights on orange
plantation; Peasants take back land
This Week in Haiti,
Haiti Progres,
16–22 May 2001. Over the past few months, workers at
Guacimal have been fighting for better wages and
conditions. The following is an update on the situation at
Guacimal as reported by the Haitian workers' movement
Batay Ouvriy (Workers' Struggle). The struggle and the
strike reviewed.
- Urgent action for Haitian Cointreau orange
laborers
- The Haiti Support Group, 21 May 2001. Cointreau orange
workers and local farmers occupy a plantation. Anti-union
measures at the Guacimal/Remy Cointreau orange plantation at
St. Raphael in northern Haiti. Local peasant farmers and
union members want to force the managers to negotiate a
settlement. International solidarity is needed.
- Labor Solidarity Groups Protest
Cointreau’s Refusal to Aid Plantation Workers in
Haiti
- Global Sweatshop Coalition, 23 October 2001. Two New York
labor solidarity groups are sponsoring a picket line in
front of the Remy Amerique offices in New York to protest
the company's refusal to aid the plantation workers in
Haiti who pick and pack oranges used in the company's
luxury Cointreau liqueur.
- Bitter Fruit
- By Charles Arthur, New Internationalist,
December 2001. The Paris-based Marnier-Lapostolle company
owns a 72-hectare plantation not far from Haiti's
second city, Cap-Haitien. Here workers have enlisted the
support of international solidarity organizations in their
struggle for union rights, better pay and improved
conditions.
- Violent Attack On Guacimal Plantation
Workers
- Report by Charles Arthur, Haiti Support Group, 29 May
2002. Reports are coming in of a violent confrontation at
the Guacimal company orange plantation in St. Raphael. Two
people have been killed and many injured. Two journalists
were among those seriously injured and are being detained
by the local police without charge.
- Urgent—action required to stop
violent attacks on unionists in Haiti
- Report by Haiti Support Group, 2 June 2002. The house of
the Guacimal Union's General Secretary, Mr. Sintes
Estime, has been burnt to the ground. The entire family
has been forced into hiding. Other dwellings belonging to
other member of the union are threatened of the same
fate.
- Update on Detained Workers
- Haiti Report for July 12, 2002, prepared by Haiti
Reborn/Quixote Center. Labor organizations denounced
Wednesday the prolonged preventive detention of nine rural
workers employed at Guacimal. These organizations include
NCHR (National Coalition for Haitian Rights), Batay
Ouvriye, POHDH (Platform of Haitian Human Rights
Organizations) and PAPDA (Platform to Advocate Alternative
Development).