Haiti's Senate President Calls for Investigation Into Use of Force to Break up Peaceful Textile Demonstrators

PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti –Senate President, Joseph Lambert, has called for an independent investigation into the circumstances that led to police officers using teargas to break up a demonstration last week by textile workers who had been seeking an increase in wages.

Demonstrators marched for increased minimum wage.In a letter sent to Frantz Elbé, the Director General of the National Police of Haiti (PNH), Lambert said he was dismayed at the strong manner in which the police had intervened to break up the demonstration by the textile workers, who had been demonstrating peacefully.

“Considering the increase in the price of transport compared to the insecurity which seriously hinders traffic in certain areas, in particular in Martissant and Croix-des-Bouquets, the dizzying acceleration in the price of basic necessities and high cost of living in general, you will be pleased, Mr Director General, to admit that these workers were rightfully claiming what is due to them,” Lambert wrote in his letter.

The workers have been demanding an adjustment of the minimum wage and Lambert made particular reference to the manner in which the teargas was used to disperse the workers of the National Company of Industrial Parks (SONAPI).

Last week Wednesday and Thursday, the textile workers took to the streets in support of their calls for improved salary conditions and union representatives said several people including a pregnant woman, had to be admitted to hospital after the police used the teargas to disperse the crowd.

Lambert called on Elbé to launch an investigation into the matter and “take the corresponding” actions as a result of the findings.

The workers were demanding a 300 percent increase in the minimum wage, which is now 500 Gourdes (One Gourde=US$0.009 cents) per right -hour working day in addition to other social benefits, such as transport and food subsidies.

They erected barricades and blocked the road to the airport. Secretary General of the Autonomous Center of Haitian Workers (CATH), Fignolé Saint Cyr, said that the minimum wage in Haiti has not been readjusted since November 1, 2019.

He said that the law provides for an adjustment each time inflation exceeds 10 percent, which has been the case for the past two years.