While fast-food workers in NY protested poverty wages, last December, thousands of garment workers
walked out of factories in Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti,
to demand a minimum wage of 500 gourdes
($11.50) a day. The workers, mostly young women, were enraged over a government commission decision
on wages which lowered the minimum from US $7.50 a day, which manufacturers refused to pay, to
a miserable $5 a day (62¢/hour). You can’t live on that, even in Haiti, where most goods are imported
(because of imposed US Free Trade policies).
The workers protested for two days, December 10 and 11, and then were locked out by the bosses for a
third day. When they went back to work, at least 28 union leaders were illegally suspended or fired. Many
of those worked for Multiwear, which produces t-shirts for HanesBrands, and One World Apparel, which
produces work clothes for Walmart and other companies.
Read in PDF: Feb1_Flyer3-1.pdf