International News

PORT-AU-PRINCE, July 11 (APP/AFP) – Hundreds of
Haiti’s factory workers protested in Port-au-Prince on Monday against a small increase in the minimum wage set by the government.
The workers, paid 300 gourdes (4.75 dollars) a day, are demanding 800
gourdes (12.75 dollars) for an eight-hour day of labor making products in
factories outsourced to foreign companies.
In a report published last week, the commission on salaries appointed
by the government to tackle the wage crisis said the minimum daily salary could be increased by 35 gourdes, or 55 cents.
“Thirty-five gourdes, that won’t send our kids to school, that won’t
pay the rent. Just getting from my home to the factory costs more than 35 gourdes,” said Patricia Joseph, heading the march, made up mostly of women.
“My message to (First Lady) Martine Moise is this: you are a woman,
you know our suffering and you know that if we are out on the streets today
protesting, 35 gourdes is not going to make a difference,” she said.
The workers movement sprang up in May after a dramatic rise in the
price of fuel worsened inflation.
In a bid to shore up its disastrous public finances, the government
announced a 17 percent hike in the price of kerosene, of 18.5 percent in gas
prices and 20 percent for diesel, despite anger the move triggered among the
country’s many poor citizens.