SOKOWA DEMANDS - APRIL 2004
The Union’s list of demands is presented in the interest of all the factory workers in the Codevi (Compagnie de Développement Industriel, S.A.) branch in Ouanaminthe. The negotiations should end up with a collective convention that will serve as a basis to ameliorate work condition in the first Codevi free trade zone and to obtain respect for their persons, for their rights as workers. In this demands list, some of the points are immediate and others should be negotiated within a delay that both parties will agree upon. These negotiations should lead to a collective convention valid for a period of time mutually agreeable.
A) The immediate points touch on questions such as:
1) Reintegration of the 34 Union members who had been fired by Codevi management in violation with the country’s laws and international labor conventions. It is necessary that:
• All workers maintain their seniority in the factory and receive full back pay for the time they were out of the factory since March 2nd 2004;
• The company pay Ariel Jerome all of his medical expenses as well as all the expenses he already incurred in going to the doctor and laboratory analyses;
• The presence of Dominican army within the free trade zone and the role played by armed civilians of the “52 Base” in beating and arresting workers on March 2nd needs to be clarified and resolved.
• The free trade zone management must stop using violence to resolve labor conflicts and take measures against all those who do not respect this.
• Codevi / Grupo M management , Mr. Limbert Cruz, should establish the principle of regular meetings to discuss with the Union’s Executive Committee to start to establish a new sort of employer/union relationship in the free trade zone. In this meeting, various points should be brought up in order to begin negotiations in view of an agreement to be signed by both parties. Amongst them, the various fired workers without severance pay as well as other points on this list.
• Codevi / Grupo M management recognizes that, according to national and international law, the Union is entitled to present itself with, or send, one or two proxies, as long as the latter have a letter proving their mandate. These proxies may act legitimately whether it be before Management, the Ministry of Social Affairs or any other person, organism or institution.
2) For the improvement of work conditions and relations, we are asking Codevi to:
• Respect the workers’ right to union organization to defend their rights and interests, with the objective of improving their life and work conditions
• Treat all workers with respect. Given the way in which supervisors and security agents are lacking of respect towards the workers, management needs to take serious disciplinary measures against this and clearly sanction those who don’t respect this;
• Put an end to arbitrary and illegal firings for union activities, that which is contrary with employees within the company;
• Put an end to all forms of discrimination, whether based on sex, race, social rank or nationality in company-worker relationships;
• Take measures so that male management employees stop sexually harassing workers by asking them favors and forcing them to stay late in the office, after work hours;
• Put an end to suspensions as a disciplinary measure without workers being able to contest decisions or even defend themselves against management accusations or positions. These types of practices violate the workers right to security in the workplace, which is a guarantee for us to be able to face our responsibilities;
• Allow the union to approve the Creole translations of the Codevi interior regulations and Code of Conduct;
• Post and distribute the approved Creole translations of the Codevi interior regulations and Code of Conduct amongst all workers, informing them of their content;
• Accept the presence of an independent verification commission composed of Haitian, Dominican and international persons/personalities with credibility and morality
3) For respect of the right to association and to negotiate collectively, we are asking Codevi to accept to:
• Respect all the workers’ right, indistinctly, to unionize without being the victims of reprisals and acts of discrimination from the free trade zone’s management;
• The “Sendika Ouvriye Codevi Wanament” (SOKOWA), affiliated with the Entè-Sendikal Premye Me/Batay Ouvriye (ESPM-Batay Ouvriye), as an organization representing the Codevi / Grupo M workers before management, function according to the Haitian labor legislation;
• Allow the Union to post bulletins, notices, notes bearing the initials of the Union’s Executive Committee on a bulletin board within the factory;
• Allow Union members to distribute leaflets in the free trade zone’s yard during the recreation period or after work;
• Receive, from the Union’s Executive Committee, notification of who shall serve as union delegates before the company. These delegates will have as mission to:
o Present management with all workers’ claims or demands;
o Present management with all complaints or grievances as to breaches of workers’ rights to work and security;
o Communicate all workers’ suggestions or observations to management;
o Inform the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor’s Service of Inspection when it visits or go to the Ministry to suggest their intervention or to lodge workers’ complaints;
o Alert union members and Codevi management of all problems occurring in the workplace in order to obtain correction or solutions satisfying both parties;
o Agree with the Codevi management on procedures for the settlement of workplace claims, grievances or conflicts (whether individual or collective);
o Inform and consult union delegates before all layoffs or massive firings, concerning their reasons and the seriousness of the situation, and management’s plan of procedure;
o Enter in contact with the free trade zone’s instances of verification and control, whether they depend of Grupo M, the IFC, Levi-Strauss, the Haitian State or other independent parties;
o Negotiate and watch over the correct respect of all agreements, collective convention signed between Codevi management and the Union.
The union delegates must be protected against all measures that could cause prejudice to their responsibility as workers’ representatives before management. They must benefit of free time to fill their functions without losing their salaries/benefits. They must have access to the entire workplace in order to accomplish their function. They must have access to all personnel members having power of decision, as soon as that is necessary. And union representatives who are not employed by the company but who are present on a consultative basis must have access to the free trade zone, as long as the Union duly warns management.
CODEVI WORKERS’ DEMANDS LIST FOR IMMEDIATELY AFTER
B) Points to be discussed shortly later:
1. Concerning Salaries, we are asking for:
• The base salary adjustment to be fixed at --- gourdes at least, for an 8 hour work day, given inflation, as stipulated in the Labor Code’s Article 137;
• The decrease of present tariffs (meta) because there is no way to make money with it. The amounts we are presently making don’t solve anything in our lives;
• Specify how the tariffs (meta) are determined, on what criteria they are established. Each time we manage to make them, management increases them on us and then suddenly they announce there is no more work. This causes us to kill ourselves uselessly at work, or we make a very small amount of money that doesn’t allow us to fulfill our responsibilities.
• The workday lasts 8 hours. Overtime and night hours must be paid 50% extra, as stipulated in Articles 97, 98 and 120 of the Labor Code;
• Our complete salaries must include: that which we earned during the normal 8 hour workdays, all overtime hours, all night hours (between 6 pm and 6 am), work occurring on Sundays and holidays;
• All workers should be able to check their own production sheets, that is the amount of work they carried out during a week of work, and on payroll day, they should receive a payment sheet clearly designating complete sums made during a specific production period, how much was removed for insurance, additions for holidays, bonus, and so on;
2. On work conditions:
• The cafeteria should serve food at a reasonable price. For this, the local cooked food vendors should be brought to sell inside at subsidized prices with equipment placed as well, to ensure proper hygiene;
• For security reasons, work should begin at 7:00 instead of 6:00 and end at 4:00, with the possibility of working Saturdays
• Whenever work occurs on Saturdays, Sundays must be paid as well (Articles 107 – 112, Labor Code);
• Holidays must be paid according to the law;
• Management should build a rest center for workers, where they can change clothes;
• Management should be responsible for transportation to and from the factory.
3. Social Advantages:
• The health center should equally serve workers’ close family and there should be a drugstore selling medicine at low cost;
• Equip a space for workers’ to be able to inform themselves and recreate, such as a soccer field, cultural center with library and alphabetization room, conference or continued learning rooms, for workers who might wish to continue developing their capacities;
• Award bonuses to all workers’ needing to send their children to school or to continue their own schooling;
• Pay ONA (old age insurance) and maternity leave according to national legislation;
• Apply that which was stipulated as social advantages in the Grupo M/IFC – World Bank agreement for the free trade zone establishment, in terms of social benefits to the Ouanaminthe population;
• Scholarships for workers to be able to continue their classic schooling or technical training on various aspects of the textile industry;
• Paid leave for workers to follow seminars of professional training during short periods of 3 to 20 days;
• Solidarity fund for workers to be able to loan in emergency cases such as death or illness. These sums should be placed in a bank account generating interest;
• Creation of a Commission to administer social programs in favor of free trade zone workers, such as:
Organization of soccer championships and physical culture sessions;
Vaccination campaign for Ouanaminthe small children
AIDS prevention program
Days of reproductive health promotion for women of Ouanaminthe;
Credit fund for cooked food vendors to be able to improve the quality of the service they provide workers in the cafeteria;
• Foundation Grupo M to make available a sum of --- dollars yearly for the improvement of agricultural production in the Maribaroux plain. This fund should assist small planters in ameliorating their cultivations, such as the building of small irrigation systems with the Massacre river water, improvement of seeds, transformation of agricultural products…
At the end of these negotiations, both parts agree to set up a collective convention that both will sign. The document will bear the signatures of Union representatives, Codevi representatives and other witness both parts will present.
All disagreement on the convention or differences in interpretations shall be settled in the following manner: one of the parts will present it to a third party who should be the Labor Office of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor or another instance both parties agree upon, for advice or definitive resolution.
Sendika Ouvriye Codevi nan Wanament (SOKOWA) :
April 2004
OUR STRUGGLES:
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