Unions give one week truce

PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti, Jun 7, CMC – Unions representing garment workers here have given the authorities a one week truce to meet their demands for an increase in the minimum wages paid to workers in the garment industry.
Secretary General of the Centrale Autonome des Travailleurs Haïtiens (CATH) Fignolé Saint Cyr, said that if the unions’ demands for an adjustment to the minimum wage of 300 gourdes (One Gourde =US$0.01 cents) other benefits including food, transport and insurance are not met, workers will resume their industrial action on Monday 12 June.
The workers at factories making T-shirts, pants and other apparel are demanding 800 Haitian gourdes per eight-hour work day
Earlier this week, Labour Minister Roosevelt Bellevue met with representatives of the Senate Social Commissioners, employers, trade union but media reports said that the meeting ended in confusion and no concrete decision had been reached.
Factories at the Port-au-Prince industrial park employ an estimated 18,000 people and workers have in recent weeks embarked on industrial action in support of their unions demands.