[News] Reactions to the Haiti strike

[News at freedomarchives.org]

Reactions to the strike call issued for January 8 and 9 by the opposition 
coalition
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Port-au-Prince, January 7, 2004  -(AHP)- Labor leader Paul Loulou Chéry 
denounced Wednesday the call to strike on January 8th and 9th issued by the 
opposition coalition.

Mr. Chéry deplored that pressure has been exerted against factory employees 
to bring about their participation in various opposition demonstrations on 
penalty of dismissal.

He declared he did not understand the decision by employers to call a 
strike while their workers don't have the right to organize as a union much 
less call for a strike.

For his part, René Civil, the leader of the organization Jeunesse Pouvoir 
Populaire (Populist Youth Power), called on the population to ignore the 
cals to demonstrate and strike launched by the opposition coalition.

According to René Civil, this coalition is carrying out a series of 
anti-democratic actions that are against the interests of the country.

"The Group of 184 and the other anti-government sectors have adopted 
measures to marginalize the political life of the underprivileged masses", 
indicated Mr. Civil, adding that that "if their objectives should be 
achieved, the inhabitants of the shanty towns would be lost forever", he 
warned.

René Civil asked the population to continue to go about daily activities 
and remain mobilized to thwart the maneuvers of the opposition.

The Union of Public Transporters on the Haitian-Dominican Border, 
affiliated with the FTPH, Fédération des Transporteurs Publics Haïtiens 
(Federation of Haitian Public Transporters) declared its disapproval of the 
strike call issued by the employers who are part of the Group of 184.

The president of the labor federation, Julien Atanaze, encouraged drivers 
belonging to the union to ignore the strike call of the group of 184.

The unions will not support any political strike, he said.

The FTPH also asked drivers in the country's nine geographic departments to 
boycott the opposition appeals.

A member of the FTPH, Augustin Adolphe, said that the objective of the 
labor federation is to work for an improvement in socio-economic conditions 
for the population.

The objective of the strikers has nothing to do with your daily concerns, 
he added.

from another perspective, the Deputy from St Louis du Sud/Cavaillon, Jean 
Candio, appealed to the public to mobilize to frustrate the plot of the 
Group of 184 designed to oust the elected authorities by every available 
means.

He said that the solution to the political crisis must necessarily be found 
through elections.

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