While participating in the Third Assembly of Caribbean People (ACP) in Cap-Haitien, 20-24 August, the Haiti Support Group’s Webber Emile has taken the opportunity to visit the city’s Branord brewery. You will remember that this brewery was where two workers were beaten and arrested by riot police in April after they asked for a wage increase to comply with the new legislation for a mimimum daily age of 70 gourdes (US$1.70). The two were released without being charged with any offence after several days in prison, only to find that they had been sacked from Branord without any severance pay.

The Haiti Support Group joined Haitian human rights and labour organisations in protesting this incident to the Brasserie Nationale director, the businessman Michael Madsen. The latter replied, saying we knew nothing of the facts and that if we visited the Branord brewery we would find nothing wrong - hence Webber’s visit on 23 August. I am copying below Webber’s dispatch. (We have been able to send Webber to the ACP as our delegate thanks to grants from Cafod and Christian Aid.)

cheers,

Charles Arthur - Haiti Support Group

Cap-Haitien, 23 August, by email

I went with Marion Faure (of the Collectif Haiti de France) to the Batay Ouvriye office on Friday afternoon. When we arrived, the Batay Ouvriye members were meeting a GAJ (Group d’Assistance Juridique) lawyer about the cases of Vilcius Laine and Ronald Toussaint, the two men who had been beaten up and dismissed in April 2003 as a result of asking that the minimum wage of 70 gourdes per day - that the government had recently decreed - be observed in the brewery. The two men lost their jobs but still haven’t received any redundancy compensation or compensation for the physical violence inflicted on them. The GAJ lawyer is trying to help Batay Ouvriye bring the case to court. However, the courts will not consider the dossier until they have received a report from the Bureau des Affaires Sociales about it. Batay Ouvriye approached the Cap-Haitien Bureau des Affaires Sociales very soon after the incident but a report still hasn’t been written due the impossibility of meeting with the Branord bosses who are apparently never available. In this context, I was rather astonished by the Branord director’s (Leslie Duchatelier) decision to meet me earlier today.

Once the lawyer had left the Batay Ouvriye office, Marion and I sat with five Batay Ouvriye members. One of them, Julien Petit-Frere (General Co-ordinator for the Cap-Haitien branch of Batay Ouvriye) gave a very detailed account of the Batay Ouvriye campaign over the minimum wage (he also gave us documents) as well as the case of the two beaten Branord brewery workers, and we agreed on a plan of action for me to visit the brewery on Saturday morning. So, I returned to the Batay Ouvriye office this morning at 7.30am to meet Vilcius Laine and Ronald Toussaint. The two men gave us their version of the events, which corresponded perfectly with Batay Ouvriye’s account the day before. I then left with the two men and headed towards the brewery, located at a 20 minutes bus drive from the Batay Ouvriye office. When we got near the brewery, I left the two men behind, out of sight, whilst I proceeded to the gate of the Brasserie du Nord (Branord). I told the receptionist I had received an invitation from Michael Madsen to visit the brewery, and that I wanted to speak with the director (Leslie Duchatelier). The receptionist left with a Haiti Support Group business card in his hand. He returned 10 minutes later and saw me to the director’s office through the hall where the workers and machines operate to bottle such beverages as Pepsi Cola, Prestige, Teem, and King Kola.

Mr Duchatelier’s secretary promptly greeted me and invited me in to the director’s office, but I preferred to wait until he had finished his interview with one of the workers. The sight of the interview scene between the director and his employee did not suggest good relationships between the boss and the employees, nor good working conditions. On one side of the desk sat a portly man with light skin (a mulatto) and on the other a short, middle-aged man wearing ragged and dusty clothes - certainly his work clothes but still...

Mr Duchatelier started by asking me were I was from, who I worked for, and how I knew Michael Madsen (the whole interview took place in French). I told him I was a member of the HSG, an organisation based in London that informs the UK and other European countries about developments in Haiti, and that I was visiting Cap-Haitien for the first time. As I didn’t want to tell him I was an ACP delegate, I told him I was interested in visiting the brewery because I had heard it was one of the most important providers of work in the North Department, and as I had never visited a brewery before I would appreciate if he could show me around and answer a few questions. He unexpectedly took the bait, and although he said I could not be shown around because the person who should do this with me was absent, he agreed to grant me 10 minutes of his time to answer a few questions. I will now transcribe the interview that ensued from that point:

How do you feel the brewery is doing, has business been good?

Leslie Duchatelier: The situation is difficult at the moment because Haiti is going through a bad patch. Economic problems mean that the people’s buying power is constently decreasing. People have many things they prefer to buy before thinking of purchasing a fizzy drink.

What would you say are Branord’s strengths?

LD: We came to the North to try and help the region develop.

So, in that sense, would you say that Branord’s mission is to help the people in the area, including the Branord employees, to better their living conditions?

LD: Yes, absolutely.

How would you describe the morale and working conditions of your employees?

LD: See for yourself, my employees have good working conditions. In fact, they have the best working conditions in the area because they benefit from running water, toilets, and showers. Employees in other companies don’t usually have these facilities.

I have heard some echoes about some trouble that allegedly took place in the brewery in the month of April involving two workers being brutalised and dismissed after they had asked for their salary to reflect the new minimum wage. Can you please tell me more about this rumour?

LD: For someone who comes from Great Britain you have too much information.

I think that one can never have too much information.

LD: It might be so but you certainly have the wrong information.

All right, I would be very interested in obtaining the correct information from you.

LD: These men were not brutalised because they were asking for a wage increase. They had ceased their work and gone on strike.

I still don’t see this as reason enough to beat them up though.

LD: Surely, even in your country workers cannot just stop working and go on strike as they wish.

In my country, employers do not beat their employees the way these two men were beaten.

LD: In any case I have nothing to add about this matter. I have already expressed myself at length on this issue and answered questions from a countless numbers of people. You should refer to our publication in the Nouvelliste. I will now ask you to leave the premisses. I am tired of people claiming that our employees work in bad conditions. My employees are satisfied with their conditions here.

Apart from these two beaten men obviously...

At this stage he stood to his feet and walked to the door. I offered him my hand sarcastically wishing Branord every success, and he predictably refuse to shake it. The two of us then embarked on a silent and comic procession from his office to the entrance gate. I suppose the only reason why I had the honour of being shown to the gate by the director himself was that he wanted to make sure I did not communicate with any of the workers on my way out. At the gate, I held my hand out once more, and once more he refused to shake it.

On Monday or Tuesday I will try to meet the Brasserie Nationale’s big boss, Madsen, but I doubt that will be easy.

Webber

This email is forwarded as a service of the Haiti Support Group.

See the Haiti Support Group web site: www.haitisupport.gn.apc.org

Solidarity with the Haitian people’s struggle for justice, participatory democracy and equitable development, since 1992.