February 23, 2010
Robert Naiman, Policy Director of Just Foreign Policy, argues in the Huffington Post for raising the wage of garment workers in Haiti:
Americans want to help Haiti; Democrats control the U.S. Congress; the Haitian Parliament has passed legislation saying Haitian workers should be paid at least $5 a day; and specific legislation that provides preferential access to the U.S. market to garments from Haiti is already U.S. law. Therefore, the following policy reform ought to be a slam dunk: Haitian garment workers whose products receive preferential access to the U.S. market under the HOPE II Act ought to be paid at least $5 a day.
The AP reported over the weekend on plans to expand the garment industry, seen as a key to the recovery. AP tells the story of Rebecca, barely able to feed herself and forced to sleep on the street. She will earn $3.09 for 8 hours of work in the factory, meanwhile the suit she helped make will sell for $550 in the US.
Naiman continues:
Suppose that it takes Rebeca a day to produce that suit, an assumption that the AP article seems to imply is plausible. Is it too much to ask that she get an extra $2 for making a $550 suit? If we could ask the customer in the U.S. who purchased the suit for $550 for a $2 donation so Rebeca could have something to eat, how many people would say no?
It is not just the workers though, who are aware of this problem:
AP says that even the factory owners concede that garment-industry wages are too low to feed, clothe and house workers and their families.
