Batay Ouvriye
| Full name | May 1st - Workers' Struggle Federation |
|---|---|
| Native name | Intersyndicale Premier Mai - Batay Ouvriye |
| Founded | 1996 |
| Office location | Port-au-Prince, Haiti |
| Country | Haiti |
| Website | www.batayouvriye.org |
Batay Ouvriye is a national workers' movement in Haiti known to be active at least since 1994.
BATAY OUVRIYE is an organization that regroups factory unions and committees, workers’ associations and militants, all struggling in Haiti for the construction of an independent, combative and democratic union movement, and to organize wage-workers, self-employed workers as well as the unemployed for the defense of their rights. The organization is an alternative to the traditional bureaucratic, corrupt union movement that upholds the dominant classes’ power amongst the exploited masses of Haiti. Not only do we take the initiative of developing spontaneous direct issue struggles, but also we incite the working class to fight and to organize themselves to defend their independent interests. Batay Ouvriye also links these particular struggles with those, more wide-ranging, of the people. In this sense, we take part in all types of popular democratic struggles by encouraging the involvement of workers.
Batay Ouvriye entered the struggle against the Disney company and other large multinationals exploiting the workers of the earth. In this struggle, we were able to find the collaboration of various solidarity organizations throughout the world interested in workers’ struggles in general and those of the Haitian workers in particular. Batay Ouvriye representatives participate in various forums organized in protest against the violations and abuses endured by workers all over the world. Lately, we participated, for example,:
- in the hemispheric organization of the garment workers of the export free trade zones in the Dominican Republic;
- in debates around organizational strategy in free trade zone countries of Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean;
- in Guatemala, on the gender question in the organizational effort in international subcontracting zones;
- in Belgium, in the Peoples Court reporting against various companies multinational such Adidas, Disney, Levi Strauss, C&A and H&M;
- in the U.S.A., in the conference on «Independent Monitoring» accusing Disney, Nike, Walmart, Keymart,;
- and in several informational tours in the struggle against Disney.
For we are aware that in the present context of world capitalist development, Haitian worker struggles cannot be detached from those of all the other workers being led in other countries. We have brought and continue to bring our militant support to all the fights in defense of labor and peoples' democratic rights.
In Haiti, Batay Ouvriye encourages the diffusion of information and workers’ training through conferences and debates, seminars or labor training workshops, by preparing and distributing didactic material on workers’ rights, international labor conventions and appropriate struggle strategies in order to thwart local or foreign bosses.
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Wikipedia