IMPROVEMENTS ON DOMINICAN SUGAR PLANTATIONS: THE

UNCLAS SANTO DOMINGO 002810

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR WHA/CAR, DRL

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: EAGR ELAB PHUM SMIG KOCI DR HA
SUBJECT: IMPROVEMENTS ON DOMINICAN SUGAR PLANTATIONS: THE


VICINI PERSPECTIVE


1. SUMMARY: Observations from visits in March and on August
25 indicate that the Vicini consortium, one of the two
largest private producers of sugar in the Dominican Republic,
has substantially improved working conditions associated with
its Cristobal Colon plantations. These changes come amidst
company efforts to automate operations, which if successful
could reduce the consortium's seasonal workforce from 1,800
to 300 within five years. Improvements include company
action to discontinue annual importation of trafficked
workers from Haiti, to stop using child labor, to allow
employees the freedom to leave their jobs, and to replace
substandard living barracks with more humane residences.
Increased media coverage of the plight of Dominican sugar
cane workers and government crackdowns on employment of
migrant workers could be part of the impetus behind some of
the changes. While these improvements are significant, and
possibly temporary, deficiencies remain. END SUMMARY.


THE VICINI CONSORTIUM
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2. The Vicini Group is owned and controlled by the Vicini
family, one of the wealthiest in the Dominican Republic. The
company is the second-largest private producer of sugar in
the Dominican Republic, and is responsible for around 13% of
the sugar produced in the country; the largest producer,
Central Romana Corporation, is responsible for 74%. The
Vicini family has owned and operated the Cristobal Colon
sugar plantation since 1890.


BIG SUGAR'S RELIANCE ON MIGRANT WORKERS
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3. Like other producers in the Dominican sugar industry,
the Vicini Group has traditionally relied heavily on seasonal
migrant workers from Haiti to cut and harvest the sugar cane
it grows. Such workers have played a vital role in Dominican
sugar production since the 19th century, but it was Trujillo
who negotiated and signed the first formal bilateral labor
contract with Haiti in 1952, under which 16,500 workers were
recruited and brought into the country to cut cane. The
practice of recruiting Haitian workers under this system
continued until the fall of Duvalier in 1986. Since then,
independent agents called "buscones" have informally managed
the recruiting of Haitian cane workers smuggled into the
country. That these schemes can be orchestrated on such a
large scale is a testament not only to the corruption that
has plagued Dominican military and immigration institutions,
but also to the political and economic significance of the
sugar industry in the country.


4. Since the 1890s Haitian migrant workers have been housed
in "bateyes" (company towns or barracks),which tend to be
situated next to the sugar plantations. Theoretically,
workers remain on the bateyes only for the six months of
sugar harvesting season, but in practice many migrants remain
year-round, in part because Haitians who leave the relative
security of the bateyes subject themselves to police
harassment and deportation. Many workers are joined by their
wives and children. The majority of workers on bateyes
typically lack such basic services as electricity and running
water, living in much the same way as they did a hundred
years ago, though Vicini workers apparently have access to
running water. Traditionally, bateyes have been largely
isolated from Dominican society and ignored by the Dominican
government, which has permitted them to operate in open
violation of labor and immigration regulations.


5. Until recently, cane-cutting operations had changed
little over 70 years. Cane cutters typically work in teams
of six men to cut the cane, load it onto ox-drawn carts and
haul it to central weighing stations. Cane cutters are paid
based on the weight of the cane they harvest. During a March
2006 visit, plantation manager Camos de Moya told Consul
General Clyde Bishop that an experienced cane cutter can earn
up to 500 pesos (US $15) per day -- about 5 times the
nationally mandated wage for agricultural workers. De Moya
appears to have been exaggerating. Vicini Group workers are
paid RD 86 (US $2.50) per ton of sugar cane processed
manually, and only the strongest workers are able to process
more than two tons in a day. Embassy political officers
verified this estimate during a recent visit to the site, by
inspecting pay stubs of a number of workers. Most workers
typically earn the equivalent of between US $2.50 and $4.00
per 12-hour workday, out of which they must pay a percentage
to the company for Dominican social security and pension

funds -- money, they say, they never see again.


6. During the six-month off-season workers who remain on
the plantation receive far less. The company provides them
with some employment, but workers are often unable to earn
even a dollar a day through the tasks they are given. During
the August 2006 visit, at around 2 p.m. on a weekday,
political officers asked workers and their children what they
had eaten during the day. The answer: "Nothing, because when
there is no work, there is no food."


HUMAN RIGHTS COMPLAINTS
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7. Representatives of human rights organizations say the de
facto autonomy of Dominican sugar producers has created sugar
fiefdoms where human rights violations are committed with
impunity. Organizations say that Haitian workers are
trafficked under false offers of work in different sectors,
only to be forced into cane cutting upon arrival; that child
labor is regularly used in harvesting activities; that
medical attention is limited or unavailable; that living and
working conditions are dangerously unsanitary; that workers
are kept against their will in slavery-like conditions, and
are punished for attempting to escape; and that basic housing
and nutritional needs are not met for workers in the bateyes.


8. Over the past five years, one activist in particular --
Father Christopher Hartley, working with the backing of the
Catholic Church -- has insistently approached the Vicini
Group and others with complaints of human rights violations.
Father Hartley is a dual-national Spanish/British Catholic
priest assigned to minister to the communities in the
agricultural areas of San Pedro de Macoris, both those on the
Vicini holdings and others on nearby government-owned
holdings. To the consternation of the Vicini family, his
efforts to focus attention on the plight of migrant workers
have borne fruit: three documentaries on the subject have
been released (Vicini representatives deny that footage was
filmed on Vicini property, in contradiction of Hartley's
claims),and five more are in the works; a major big-screen
production on the sugar sector starring Jodie Foster is on
the horizon; the State Department's Human Rights Report has
commented about Vicini company practices; and scores of
newspaper articles and NGO reports have cited Father Hartley
as a major source. Father Hartley is now a well-known public
figure in the Dominican Republic, sufficiently controversial
and threatened that the government provides him armed guards
for his security.


PLANS TO AUTOMATE OPERATIONS
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9. In March 2006, Consul-General Bishop visited the Cristobal
Colon plantation at the invitation of Felipe Vicini. During
that visit Mr. Vicini explained that his company had recently
instituted a policy barring the hiring from Haiti of migrant
workers. Vicini said the firm had determined that long-term
workers are more productive than short-term ones; he conceded
that international human rights concerns also played a role.
A recently announced government decision to stop allowing
owners of sugar plantations to hire new workers from Haiti
could be another factor driving the company's decision.
Carlos Amarante Baret, Director of the Dominican Immigration
Agency, announced the new policy in January, but it remains
unclear whether it has been enforced.


10. Regardless of its rationale, the effects of this new
policy were evident during an August 2006 visit where Embassy
political officers visited the facility in the company of
Father Hartley. Hartley said that the 2005-2006 harvest
season was the first in memory without the arrival of
thousands of Haitian migrant workers, many trafficked. The
absence of new Haitian migrant workers was independently
confirmed by current batey residents. Hartley strongly
approved of this change, noting that if this policy continued
then the Vicini Group would be obliged to automate its
operations further.


11. Automation appears to be exactly what management has in
mind. As Felipe Vicini explained to the Consul General, a
single mechanical cane harvester replaces 250 cane cutters.
With mechanization Vicini hopes to increase production levels
significantly while reducing production costs from $0.12 a
pound to $0.10. This would follow the lead of La Romana
Corporation, whose operations are already 80% automated.

Vicini expects automation to reduce the seasonal workforce
from 1,800 to 300 within five years, eliminating 19 of the 22
bateyes in the plantation. Vicini said that the
consolidation of the bateyes would allow the company to
provide better housing facilities, effective medical
attention and schooling to children of the long-term
residents. He claims that, over the long-term, these
consolidated bateyes would become incorporated legal
municipalities.


OTHER IMPROVEMENTS
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12. Father Hartley was pleased to discuss a number of other
improvements he had witnessed over the past year. He said
that child labor was now strictly prohibited on the company's
facilities. He saw this as a fundamental change from
previous years, when children were routinely called upon to
assist in planting responsibilities. During the August
visit, signs outlawing child labor were posted throughout the
plantation, even though most migrant workers cannot read or
write.


13. Another major improvement was new and improved housing
for batey residents. Consul General Bishop noted relatively
clean and orderly housing on the site, most of it built over
the past year. Previous barracks-style residences were
dirty, unsanitary, and small, and multiple families were
routinely forced to share the same quarters. Those
facilities were a frequent target of criticism, and were
singled out by the Ambassador during his 2003 visit to the
premises. They have now been completely bulldozed and the
debris has been removed from the plantation. Similar
barracks are visible on government-owned property and Hartley
says such conditions exist on the La Romana plantations.

14. Batey workers on Vicini operations also now have the
freedom to terminate their employment whenever they choose to
do so. Previously, those who wished to quit were not allowed
to leave their jobs. Those who attempted to sneak away were
often caught; Hartley says they were punished with beatings
or forced deportation.


DEMANDS UNADDRESSED
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15. Father Hartley continues to emphasize three key unmet
demands: First, that workers be provided with electricity.
Second, that workers be provided a job contract which clearly
states the conditions of their employment (this is also a
requirement under Dominican law). Third, that the company
provide supervision at each of the weighing stations.
Hartley says that fraud is a huge concern at the weighing
stations, and that workers are often shorted in the
assessment of their tonnage and underpaid for their work.


16. Working with local attorneys, Hartley is preparing the
groundwork to launch class-action lawsuits demanding not only
written work contracts, but also accountability for medical
insurance deductions, in the event that formal administrative
appeals fail to resolve these issues.


17. (Drafted by Alexander T. Bryan and Alex Sokoloff.


18. (U) This report and extensive other material can be
consulted on our SIPRNET site,
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/santodomingo/ .
BULLEN