Two Years After Quake, Haitians Have Few Jobs or a Living Wage
Elizabeth Boomer of the AFL-CIO International Affairs Department sends us this report in conjunction with the Solidarity Center.
Two years after a massive earthquake destroyed much of Haiti’s capital and surrounding towns, the Haitian people are still struggling to recover from the disaster and the entrenched poverty that it has exacerbated.
The solution, say Haitian workers, is a Haitian-driven reconstruction effort that focuses on sustainable, equitable development aimed at improving the lives of all citizens—not just a few.
Decent Work Key To Haiti’s Reconstruction
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| Fire Fighters members of Fairfax County (Va.) Urban Search and Rescue conduct a rescue operation at the Montana Hotel in Port-au-Prince in January 2010. | |
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| Anthony Jones | |
This is a cross post from International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) online.
In this interview, Anthony Jones, the resident representative of the ITUC and the Trade Union Confederation of the Americas (TUCA) in Haiti, highlights the urgency of placing decent work at the heart of Haiti’s reconstruction program after the devastating earthquakes in January 2010. He also insists on the importance of training to support the Haitian trade union movement.
Q: What has been so far the role of decent work in the reconstruction effort?
Jones: The issue of decent work has not been discussed for reconstruction purposes. What has been discussed is creation of jobs, but not decent work. People are operating in the short term and not taking into account standards needed to protect workers and ensure that their rights are also enforced.
Q: Are trade unions prepared to face this massive challenge?
Jones: There is a great need to reorganize in Haiti and help unions to reach out to new members. In construction, for instance, workers are walking round with no protection, no helmet and no gloves on. The international trade union movement should be in this area. You would go to make the sector safer. It would create a class of workers that are skilled and who could work effectively and be a valuable part of the reconstruction process.
Solidarity in Action: Supporting Haitian Workers After the Earthquake
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This is a cross-post from the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center.
One year ago, a massive earthquake shattered Haiti, violently disrupting the lives of more than 1 million people and killing more than 200,000. Workers in the island nation faced extraordinary challenges as they struggled to find loved ones, bury their dead, and secure shelter for their families amid the rubble.
Today, the situation for Haitian workers and their families is brighter, thanks to the generous contributions of more than 1,000 individuals and organizations to the Solidarity Center’s Earthquake Relief for Haitian Workers Fund. With this money, the Solidarity Center has been able to work closely with our Haitian and Dominican partners on the ground to provide immediate and long-term assistance as Haitian workers continue to rebuild their lives.
More NNU Nurses Answer Call to Help Haitian Quake Survivors
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Another contingent of National Nurses United (NNU) nurse volunteers is on its way to Haiti to help provide much needed medical care to the earthquake survivors. The 10 RNs are part of NNU’s RN Response Network (RNRN).
This group includes intensive care, medical/surgical and pediatric nurses from California, Massachusetts and Texas. NNU Co-President Deborah Burger is part of the volunteer group.
They will be working side by side with Haitian nurses and doctors at Sacre Coeur Hospital, in northern Haiti, which provides medical care for the region’s 225,000 residents. They leave on the nine-day deployment April 9 and the RNRN is working with hospital officials to organize continuing volunteer nurse rotations. NNU reports that thousands of nurses have volunteered to serve in Haiti.
Respect Workers’ Rights When Rebuilding Haiti
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This week, trade unionists from around the world will meet in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, to draft a road map for rebuilding Haiti. Unions have already made it clear the reconstruction and future development of Haiti must include social protections, creation of decent work and respect for workers’ rights.
In a statement to the U.N. Donor’s Conference last week, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) called for a major international aid mobilization to rebuild the country’s devastated infrastructure and economy. At the Donor’s Conference, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced the United States has pledged $1.15 billion for Haiti’s reconstruction.
ITUC is organizing the Santo Domingo meeting along with its regional organization for the Trade Union Confederation of the Americas (TUCA) and Global Union Federations PSI and EI.
Help Match $100,000 Donation to Haiti from Union Plus
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The union movement is working to bring relief to workers in Haiti affected by the Jan. 12 earthquake and to build a long-term strategy to move the country away from a sweatshop economy to one that provides good jobs.
The first priority has been to respond to urgent needs for food, water, medical attention and dry shelter. If you haven’t yet had a chance to help, or wish to donate again to relief efforts, Union Plus has pledged to match up to $100,000 in individual donations to the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center’s Earthquake Relief Fund. Already, Union Plus has matched $80,000 and needs just $20,000 more to reach that goal. Click here to donate online now. Donations also can be made by sending a check with Earthquake Relief Fund for Haitian Workers in the memo line to:
Solidarity Center Education Fund
Attention: Joan Welsh
888 16th St., N.W., Suite 400
Washington, D.C. 20006
Executive Council Supports Aid to Chile, Haiti and Backs Mexican Workers
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The AFL-CIO Executive Council yesterday called on the world community to provide quick, no strings attached aid to Chile after the massive earthquake Feb. 27. The union leaders also reaffirmed strong support for the relief efforts in Haiti and condemned the Mexican government’s attempts to break the union at Grupo Mexico mines. Executive Council members met March 1-3 in Orlando.
In its statement on Chile, the council said aid should be provided without any requirements of repayment. The council also urged that all aid and reconstruction projects in Chile should respect living wage standards and fundamental labor and trade union rights. Click here to read the entire statement.
Solidarity Center’s Union-to-Union Relief Effort Helps Haitian Workers
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In the aftermath of the devastating earthquake in Haiti, the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center acted quickly to send needed supplies and support to its Haitian partners through a union-to-union effort that provides short-term emergency aid and builds toward long-term reconstruction and strengthening of Haiti’s union movement.
You can take action now to help the Haitian survivors by clicking on the AFL-CIO Haitian Disaster Relief site here.
On its website, the center reports that its Earthquake Relief for Haitian Workers Fund has helped provide Haitian workers with:
- Regular truckloads of canned foods, water, re-hydration liquids, plastic tarps, diapers, blankets, first aid supplies, medicine and other critical items.
- Direct funds to Haitian trade unions and labor support organizations for purchasing additional supplies, improving communication systems and outreach to workers and restoring union offices for use as shelters and food distribution centers.
- Support for union partners for developing a response to relief and reconstruction that addresses the specific needs of women workers.
Read the full report here.
Don’t Forget Haiti’s Workers
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Despite reports of improved conditions in Port-au-Prince, two weeks after the earthquake hit Haiti, workers still lack basic shelter, food, water and medicine, reports Cathy Feingold, the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center representative in the neighboring Dominican Republic.
Feingold met with union leaders in Haiti last week and says:
…the majority of union leaders and members are sleeping outside their homes because many completely collapsed or became unstable as a result of structural damage. Direct access to international humanitarian aid remains challenging; so many workers and their unions depend on the support received from the global labor movement.
You can take action now to help the Haitian survivors by clicking on the AFL-CIO Haitian Disaster Relief site here. You can read Feingold’s full report here.
Impoverished Farm Workers Respond to Need in Haiti
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Union members and other working people across the country are digging deep into their hearts and pockets to provide aid to the victims of the massive earthquake in Haiti. You can take action now to help the Haitian survivors by clicking on the AFL-CIO Haitian Disaster Relief site here.
One of this country’s most impoverished areas—the farm worker community of Immokalee, Fla.—is doing its part. Enlisting its low-power radio station, Radio Conciencia, members of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) launched a donation drive. They will send all donations to the Red Cross.
The CIW website says the response has been overwhelming.
Seeing farm workers—who are themselves suffering unemployment and economic crisis due to two weeks of freezing temperatures that destroyed crops across south Florida—stream into the office with water, clothes, and canned food is nothing short of inspiring.
