The January 2010 earthquake has increased Haitian workers’ vulnerability and subsequently intensified the need for legal mechanisms that ensure the enforcement of their fundamental labor rights. In response, the Solidarity Center and its partner, Action des Unités Motivés pour une Haïti de Droit (AUMOHD), recently published the first abridged Haitian Labor Code in Creole and will distribute it free of charge.

	Haitian workers and unions now have free access to the first abridged Haitian Labor Code in Creole, the language of the people.

Until May 2010, the Haitian labor law had been available only in French, the official language, at a cost of $50 per copy. Considering that the majority of Haitian workers speak only Creole and that the minimum wage is a meager $5 (200 Haitian gourdes) per day, most workers and unions had no previous access to their own labor code.

On May 17, Solidarity Center Haiti Country Program Director Cathy Feingold and Deputy Executive Director Kate Doherty participated in a press conference to celebrate the launch of this historic and empowering instrument. Jean Claude Le Brun, a longtime union leader, traced the history of labor law and worker rights in Haiti to remind those in attendance of “where we come from and how far we’ve gone.” He urged Haitians to “read [the labor code], talk about it, and organize workers around it so that all workers will know their rights and duties.”

AUMOHD Executive Director Evel Fanfan also spoke eloquently: “The Haiti we dream of is the Haiti of justice, with rights for all. The Haiti we need to reconstruct is not the Haiti of dictators, or of traditional institutions. Let us build a Haiti where all live under the rule of law.”

Finally, a young factory worker took the podium to express what the Creole labor code meant to her. She looked out at the audience, held up the book, and simply said, “Merci, merci, merci.”