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Haiti LABOR
Unavailable
Figure 13. Employment by Sector, 1983
Source: Based on information from International Labour Office,
Yearbook of Labor Statistics, 1987, Geneva, section 3B.
Haiti's 1989 labor force was estimated at 2.8 million
people.
The economically active population (those over age ten),
however,
represented more than half of the country's total 6.1
million
population. Forty-two percent of the official work force
was
female, ranking the country's female participation as one
of the
highest among developing countries. In rural areas,
however, the
role of women in production and commerce was apparently
much
greater than these statistics indicated
(see Gender Roles and Family Life
, ch. 7).
The distribution of the labor force by economic sector
from
1950 to 1987 reflected a shift from agriculture to
services, with
some growth in industry. Despite these changes,
agriculture
continued to dominate economic activity in the 1980s,
employing
66 percent of the labor force; it was followed by
services, 24
percent, and industry, 10 percent. Based on these figures,
Haiti
continued to be the most agrarian, and the least
industrial,
society in the Western Hemisphere. The country's
employment of
only 50,000 salaried workers in 1988 was further evidence
of the
traditional character of the work force
(see
fig. 13).
Statistics on employment and the methodologies used to
gather
such data varied widely; most unemployment figures were
only
estimates. In 1987 the United States Department of Labor
estimated that Haiti's unemployment rate was 49 percent.
Other
estimates ranged from 30 to 70 percent. Official
unemployment was
severe in Port-au-Prince, but comparatively low in rural
areas,
reflecting urban migration trends, rapid population
growth, and
the low number of skilled and semi-skilled workers.
Haiti established a labor code in 1961, but revised it
in
March 1984 to bring legislation more in line with
standards set
by the International Labour Office (ILO). Conformity with
ILO
guidelines was a prerequisite for certification under the
Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI--see Appendix B) enacted
by the
United States Congress in 1983.
Haiti's most fundamental labor law, the minimum wage,
was
also the most controversial. Low wage rates attracted
foreign
assembly operations. In 1989 the average minimum wage
stood at
the equivalent of US$3 a day, with some small variations
for
different types of assembly work. The minimum wage in the
late
1980s was below the 1970 level in real terms, but assembly
manufacturers and government officials refused to increase
wages
because they needed to remain competitive with other
Caribbean
countries. Labor laws included an array of provisions
protecting
workers in the areas of overtime, holidays, night-shift
work, and
sick leave. The government, however, did not universally
enforce
many of these provisions. The greatest number of workers'
complaints came from assembly plants where seasonal
layoffs were
common.
The organized-labor movement, generally suppressed
under the
Duvaliers, grew rapidly in the wake of the dynasty's
collapse.
Three major trade unions dominated organized-labor
activity in
the 1980s. The newest of these three was the Federation of
Union
Workers (Féderation des Ouvriers Syndiqués--FOS).
Established in
1983 after negotiations over the CBI opened the way for
public
labor organization, the FOS by 1987 represented forty-four
member
unions, nineteen of which were registered with the
government.
Its combined membership in Port-au-Prince and Les Cayes
totaled
approximately 15,000. Politically moderate, the FOS was
affiliated with the American Federation of Labor-Congress
of
Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) and with the
International
Confederation of Free Trade Unions in Brussels. The oldest
union
of influence, the Autonomous Federation of Haitian
Workers/Federation of Latin American Workers (Centrale
Autonome
des Travailleurs Haïtiens/Centrale Latino-Américaine des
Travailleurs--CATH/CLAT), was affiliated with the Latin
American
trade-union movement and shared its history of political
activism. CATH/CLAT consisted of 150 unions, including 63
that
were registered with the government. It professed a
membership of
7,000. Haiti's third principal union, the CATH, had
splintered
from CATH/CLAT in 1980; it had managed to take with it
forty-four
member unions, all recognized by the state. CATH claimed a
membership of 5,000. CATH and CATH/CLAT primarily
represented
assembly workers. The Ministry of Social Affairs
registered only
unions and not individual members; this practice allowed
unions
to exaggerate their membership, which probably amounted to
fewer
than 5,000 by 1987. By the end of the decade, trade unions
had
made only small organizational inroads among assembly
workers;
the role of union activity in that sector was the central
point
of debate in the organized-labor movement.
Data as of December 1989
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