PRESENT LABOR CONDITIONS RELATED TO FORCED LABOR

UNCLAS SANTO DOMINGO 000547

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

STATE FOR WHA/CAR, LA PAZ FOR A/DCM C LAMBERT

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PHUM PGOV HA DR
SUBJECT: PRESENT LABOR CONDITIONS RELATED TO FORCED LABOR
IN SUGAR PRODUCTION


1. (SBU) Summary: This cable reports on current labor
conditions evaluated to help determine whether the production
of sugar in the Dominican Republic is accomplished through
forced labor. Post individually consulted ten groups with
significant experience working in the sugar bateyes. The
responses from these groups negated reports of forced labor
and the conditions supporting the same. Aside from armed
guards, a cultural norm in country, only a few groups
reported isolated incidents of some of the practices cited by
sources provided to the Department of Labor. Post therefore
continues to recommend that the Department of Labor not
include Dominican sugar in its list of goods produced through
forced labor.

THE SURVEY
--------------


3. (U) The survey Post used to solicit responses from NGOs,
inter-governmental agencies and other humanitarian
organizations is as follows:
We are attempting to gauge current work freedom situations
for cane laborers and would like to know if, in your
experience, any of the following are still occurring. If
they are not occurring now, but did occur in the past, do you
know approximately when the practices stopped?
(a) Withholding wages until the end of the harvest or the
beginning of the following season to keep workers in the
field.
(b) Confiscating workers' clothes and documents to prevent
them from leaving.
(c) Presence of armed guards in the fields. If they are
there, why are they present?
(d) Punishing with violence workers who are caught trying to
leave.
(e) Threatening those who try to leave with forced
deportation (due to their lack of documentation).
(f) Falsely promising employment in other sectors to workers
who are then forced to work in sugarcane for no wages or for
wages so low that they cannot leave.
(g) Paying the workers in coupons or vouchers that are only
honored on company grounds rather than in currency.

THE RESPONSES
--------------


4. (SBU) Post solicited responses to these questions from
representatives with Movimiento Socio Cultural para los
Trabajadores Haitianos (MOSCTHA),the Solidarity Center
(AFL-CIO),Catholic Relief Services (CRS),Movimiento de
Mujeres Dominico-Haitianas (MUDHA),Pan American Development
Foundation (PADF),Mujeres en Desarrollo Dominicana (MUDE),
Batey Relief Alliance Dominicana (BRA),Servicio Jesuitas a
Refugiadas y Migrantes (SJRM),Centro Dominicano de Asesoria
e Investigaciones Legales (CEDAIL),and Facultad
Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO). These groups
represent a highly reputable cross-section of the community
working in bateyes with Haitian sugarcane laborers and their
descendents in the Dominican Republic.


5. (U) Withholding wages until the end of the harvest or the
beginning of the following season to keep workers in the
field. None of the ten groups questioned know of cases in
which this practice is occurring. Two mentioned that this
was a past practice, but were not sure how long ago the
practice stopped.


6. (U) Confiscating workers' clothes and documents to prevent
them from leaving. Only one group reported that this
practice still occurs with the confiscation of documents, but
not clothes. The one respondent that claimed this was still
occurring based her response on information received from a
batey union in Barahona. When PolOff contacted the head of
the union from whom the group's director based her response,
that union representative stated that this does not occur.
Two other sources claimed that this was an ancient practice
that has long since ceased.


7. (U) Presence of armed guards in the fields. If they are
there, why are they present? Five out of ten groups report

that this practice continues. Of those reporting that this
practice exists, all reported that the guards are present for
the security of the workers and the owner's property. Two of
the respondents believed that they have the effect of keeping
the people down and intimidating the workers into not
complaining about their conditions. One respondent, who said
that the guards are currently present to maintain order noted
that 15 years ago, the guards were used to keep the workers
in their camps and to bring in new workers. This source
commented that the guards no longer hold this function. One
respondent noted that the guards are not in place to keep the
workers from leaving, in fact workers routinely leave one
batey for another, but rather to keep order in a field full
of men armed with machetes.


8. (U) Punishing with violence workers who are caught trying
to leave. Nine out of ten groups report no known cases of
this practice. One group representative reported that he had
heard of a few cases of this practice, but noted that it has
been reduced significantly in recent years. Two respondents
who said the practice had ceased claimed that it had stopped
some time ago.


9. (U) Threatening those who try to leave with forced
deportation (due to their lack of documentation). Five out
of ten groups report no known cases of this practice, and no
sources noted a threat of deportation in response to an
attempt to leave the bateyes. Of those five groups reporting
that threats of deportation exist, one was contradicted by
her source who works with her in Barahona. Of the remaining
four groups claiming that threats of deportation continues,
two stated that the threat arises when the workers complain
about their salary or ask for better working conditions, not
when they seek to leave. One representative who believes the
practice occurs in response to requests to improve conditions
claimed that some leaders of worker groups have been deported
after seeking improvements. Another representative noted
that generally workers have a fear of deportation gained
through the process of their migration even if the threat of
deportation is not raised by their employers.


10. (U) Falsely promising employment in other sectors to
workers who are then forced to work in sugarcane for no wages
or for wages so low that they cannot leave. Six out of ten
groups report no known cases of this practice, and no groups
agreed with the second part of the question - i.e. that
workers are forced to work in sugarcane for no wages or for
wages so low that they cannot leave. Of those reporting that
this practice exists, all four claimed that the workers
expected to make more money than they made upon beginning
work in the bateyes. Two of those respondents claimed that
workers are promised jobs in construction by "buscones," but
the workers ended up in bateyes.


11. (U) Paying the workers in coupons or vouchers that are
only honored on company grounds rather than in currency. Six
out of ten groups report no known cases of this practice. On
the four who claimed knowledge of this event, one was
contradicted by her source. Of those remaining, one claimed
that this practice was continuing until last year in
Barahona; however, these are not company store coupons in the
traditional sense, but rather paper slips that can be
converted to cash (like any other paycheck) or used in
company stores. When PolOff asked those reporting that this
practice exists to further explain what they knew to be
happening, the groups explained that the coupons can be
exchanged for cash, but not until payday. When the workers
deliver the cut sugarcane, they are given a "coupon" that
notes how much the cane weighed and how much they will be
paid on payday. Because the workers in some bateyes are paid
every two to three weeks, they may need to wait as much as 20
days to collect their pay in cash. If the worker decides not
to wait for this payment, he or she can submit these sheets
of paper to company-owned stores where they are paid 80 cents
on the dollar for immediate use. All groups to whom PolOff
requested additional information stated that the workers are
able to collect the full amount of their salary in cash if
they can wait until payday to collect their money.

COMMENT
--------------


12. (SBU) Based on these responses, and the combined
experience of the political officers serving at Post, Post
concludes that the practices and conditions supporting a
finding of forced labor in the production of Dominican sugar
do not currently exist and suggests that the Department of
Labor not include Dominican sugar in its List of Goods as
produced through forced labor. The results of this survey
are particularly significant given that, with possible
exception of PADF, the groups questioned represent and work
solely in the interest of the Haitian laborers and their
descendents. Also noteworthy is the fact that although
Post's labor and human rights reporting officer daily
communicates with and responds to grievances from NGOs
representing Haitian rights, the practices leading to this
survey have never previously been raised as concerns.
Likewise, in PolOff's personal experience speaking with and
visiting the laborers and residents of bateyes throughout the
Dominicain Republic, with the exception of one armed guard
seen on one batey, the issues raised in this survey are not
current practice.


13. (SBU) Haitian workers' lack of documentation and illegal
status in the country does place them in a tenuous situation.
There is a high likelihod that their employers take
advantage of their situation and this is reflected through
their payment and working conditions. Likewise, the presence
of armed guards on private batey property is not surprising
-- culturally, this is standard practice and many private
property owners employ armed guards due to the high crime
rate in the country and concerns for personal protection.
Batey workers routinely leave one batey for another, or from
bateyes to other cities for work, and no respondent reported
guards or other batey representatives attempting to stop this
movement.

(U) Please visit us at
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/santodomingo/
BULLEN