PRESS RELEASE on the Assassination Attempt Against Our Comrade Yannick Etienne [Haiti]

Batay Ouvriye

February 3, 2015

With this document, we wish to inform all our comrades of the entire world that a handful of fake “union centrals” serving the bosses attacked our fellow militant, Yannick Etienne, in fact attempting to assassinate her.

With much more details, the denunciation Note of the Batay Ouvriye Textile and Garment Union (SOTA – BO) is below.

At the same time, we exhort our friends and sympathizers to also denounce this act internationally with cc to ; sainteloid@

THE FIGHT HAS JUST BEGUN!

SENDIKA OUVRIYE TEKSTIL AK ABIMAN

(SOTA-BO)

TEXTILE & CLOTHING WORKERS UNION

Blvd Toussaint Louverture/1, Imp Templier sindicatsota@ 3786-4038

Port-Au-Prince January 30, 2015

Press Release

The Executive Committee of the Textile & Clothing Workers Union-Batay Ouvriye firmly denounces an assassination attempt against our comrade Yannick Etienne at the SONAPI Industrial Complex on January 30, 2015. This assassination attempt happened after a meeting with the MULTIWEAR S.A. administration on the question of salary arrears for the workers in accordance to an agreement with the owners; as Yannick came out of the meeting, she was confronted by a group of people armed with screw drivers, rocks, and scissors claiming to belong to an organization calling itself ROHAM, which is affiliated with CNOHA under the leadership of Dominique St. Eloi.

However, the chief commando leaders of the assassination attempt are Elmerome Bresier, Julien Frenel, Daniel (so-called) and many more un-identified individuals (who are working in the factory), who assaulted verbally and physically our comrade, threatening her, punctured 3 tires of her car with scissors and threw rocks at her car. This criminal assault on our comrade comes after a campaign of defamation by CNOHA and ROHAM against us at SOTA-BO spewing lies to the workers about some supposedly U.S. $114 million donated through us to the workers of MULTIWEAR. As we were in negotiations and signed an agreement with MULTIWEAR, we were always in a position to counter their lies and assert to the workers that those people are quacks and are using this lie about the U.S. $114 million to put them in total darkness. They are not defending workers’ interests by lying.

Therefore, with this cowardly assassination attempt by those scoundrels against our comrade, we demand that the MAST (Ministry of Social Affairs and Work) take action against those so-called union leaders who think they are bigwigs who can do whatever they want in the name of union freedom. Gangsters like these should not be free to roam as union leaders. Their actions are serious violations of Article 242 of the Labor Code, which says that MAST must take immediate and effective sanctions. This is why we are denouncing the assassination attempt before the national and international public opinion. And we will pursue every legal means at our disposal so that such acts, which are not worthy of unionists are not repeated. We are telling members of ROHAM and CNOHA, that Yannick Etienne’s life and that of all the members of SOTA-BO working in MULTIWEAR and our other union chapters are in the hands of those who made this assassination attempt. We demand that the Haitian State be accountable.

DOWN WITH YELLOW UNIONS THAT WANT TO DECEIVE WORKERS AND DEDICATED UNIONISTS!!!

LONG LIVE A CREDIBLE, SERIOUS AND COMBATIVE UNION MOVEMENT!!!

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