World Unions will Urge Respect for Workers' Rights in Haiti Reconstruction this week in Santo Domingo

From 'American Federation of Labor - Congress of Industrial Organizations' Blog >

Respect Workers’ Rights When Rebuilding Haiti

Posted By James Parks On April 4, 2010 @ 9:00 am

Dominican union truck drivers carry supplies to Haitian workers in Port-au-Prince.

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.


ITUC General Secretary Guy Ryder said:

Rebuilding and defining a new development model for Haiti is a huge task that will require sustained international support. Today, trade unions, particularly in Haiti, must be involved in it. In the past, the country was characterized by a huge informal economy, severe poverty and hazardous and poorly paid work for much of the workforce in the formal economy. There is now an opportunity to change that for the better, and we are calling on international institutions, donor governments and the Haitian government to provide decent economic opportunities for Haitians.

Following the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake, trade unions around the world mobilized support on an unprecedented scale. 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.

Some Interesting Comments Found at The Blog:

1. bikini28 on 05.04.2010 at 15:42
   I think you’re missing the point that over all the past history of this poor country, Haiti was the foremost haven for the Market Fundalmentalist Milton Friedman laissez faire policies and that example should be promoted. Labor unions? are you kidding? Health Care, Schools, child labor, rape, criminal courts, minimum wage? Screw you you’re on your own! Parks, civil enforcement, Sanitary and Plumbing regulation,Building Codes? “We don need no stinkin codes! This was the perfect “Free Market” petri dish that acolytes can’t roll out the old canard of “deregulation didn’t go far enough.” This is what the Republican Party wants for our country because they care more for the “purity” of their idealogical adherence than the fact that their idealogy is why the whole building has collapsed on their heads. In Haiti, it was more than the roof, it was the whole nation.
   
   
2. Retired nurse on 05.04.2010 at 19:18
   Another thing. Let’s get some earthquake resistant building there. We need cooperation from designers, architects and the unions. Good construction materials should be used. New clinics, hospitals and low income housing should be planned. Sewage systems and other infrastructure needs to be considered. Officials need to be monitored by the UN or some decent entity.