TUC Aid helps rebuild unions in Haiti.

TUC Aid has joined hands with the Trade Union Confederation for the Americas (TUCA) and TUC Aid in an initiative to help rebuild trade union structures and institutions in Haiti following the devastating earthquake in 2010. The Project implemented in partnership with the Haitian trade union movement aims at increasing union membership, promoting workers' rights and decent work and social protection through a comprehensive capacity building programme.

New unions

The recruitment drive has begun to bear fruit. The Confédération des Travalleurs Haitiens (CTH) has been successful in forming a trade union at Global SA - first company to be based in the Free Trade Zone, near Caracol, in the northeast of the country. The membership currently stands at 1,050 out of a total workforce of some 1,300. The Syndicat des Ouvriers de Global SA (SOGSA) will soon be negotiating a collective bargaining agreement with the company. The Confédération des Travailleurs des Secteurs Public et Privé en Haïti (CTSP), too, has set up a trade union for construction workers with 69 members. The CTSP held its congress recently and has renewed its structures with significant changes at leadership level. As part of its strategy to promote gender equality, the union has elected a 17-member Executive Committee with seven women officials on it. Plans are underway to form a union for nurses in Cayes and Jeremie. The recruitment campaign focused on the protection, promotion, enforcement of workers' rights and entitlements through collective bargaining, including on the need for:

Increasing the minimum wage,

Access to social protection,

Better defence of workers in cases of rights' violations,

The promotion of trade union freedom and the right to organise.

Training Programme

The training programme for union officials is in progress. The first batch consisting of 149 union officials in four groups, including 58 women officials has already completed the initial training. A similar training programme for organisers in the informal sector will begin in July and be conducted with the aid of a rights awareness video produced for the purpose. Organisers, following initial training, have been tasked with developing organising strategies and action plans and are expected to undergo further training.

Promoting trade union unity

The monthly coordination meetings provide a forum for the exchange of information and interaction for ITUC-TUCA affiliated organisations in Haiti.

Photo ITUC

Some 15 organisations attend the meetings regularly and have begun to develop common policies and practices on a variety of themes - labour law reforms, women's participation and gender equality, social protection and dialogue etc.

Reforming Labour Code

The unions have improved their profile and visibility and taken a common stance vis-à-vis employers, the Government and the ILO in the first tripartite meeting on the labour law reforms. A coordination and assessment committee representative of the Haitian trade union movement as a whole meets regularly to discuss the issues and develop a common position in advance of tripartite meetings.

Photo ITUC

An information campaign is underway to inform workers on the progress in the reform process. The implementation of a social protection floor for all workers including those in the informal sector in the medium-term is under consideration. A training programme on social protection is being developed in collaboration with ITUC-TUCA affiliates and the governing body of the social security organisations (Conseil d'Administration des Organes de Sécurité Sociale - CAOSS). The ITUC-TUCA will look at ways of supporting the work of the three trade union representatives in the wages council (Conseil Supérieur des Salaires)- tripartite body which oversees the implementation of laws and regulations on salaries including the enforcement of the minimum wage introduced in 2009.

Gender equality

More work is needed to achieve progress in gender equality. The organisations that took part in the inter-trade union activities on International Women's Day in March 2013 decided to continue their activities in this regard by forming a women's inter-trade union committee which represents seven trade union centres as well as the professional teachers' federation. The Committee meets once a month. A training programme focusing on gender equality is currently being developed and will be carried out in July.

Trade union unity

Project activities have been instrumental in bringing Haitian trade unionists together on a common course of action on a variety of issues. Union officials have been nominated for various committees and structures and serve on them as representatives of the Haitian trade union movement. The successful mobilisation of the Haitian trade union movement around the events such as the International Women's Day in March and the International Workers' Day in May this year points to the impact of the Project on inter-union collaboration. See video on May Day celebrations in Port au Prince. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLkpJtr_FB0&feature=share