The persisting strike across all post and customs offices in Haiti, has costed the treasury more than 700 million gourdes since it started Monday, according to the Haitian Minister of Finance, Jude Alix Patrick Salomon, who also predicts that it will have a negative impact on the government’s budget for the fiscal year 2017-2018.
Mr Salomon said that his ministry was still in negotiations with the Association of Haitian Customs before the damages become “irreparable.”
The root of this strike is due to Mr Salomon himself. On January 21, 2017 during a meeting with workers syndicates, on behalf of the Haitian government he signed a mutual agreement which promises the workers special status and pay raise. He promised that the document would be officially published by the Ministry of Economy and Finance within 90 days.
A year later, the government still hasn’t published the document and has instead initiated new negotiation talks. Strikers refuse to budge. They will not negotiate a previous negotiation. The Minister of Economy and Finance calls the Customs strike blackmail. Jude Alix Patrick Solomon, who spoke Friday morning on Radio Magik 9, said that what the customs demanded was not consistent with what they signed. According to him, customs officials have no reason to paralyze the country's customs.
Meanwhile the big manufacturers operating at the industrial park are getting worried.This is the unpredictable part of Haiti investors has always fear. The major South Korean apparel company Sae-A Trading Co. was forced to close its door for a couple days as it remains unable to ship millions of dollars worth of merchandises out of the country to fulfill demand.
The Minister of Finance says that he remains hopeful that he will come to a new agreement with the workers by this week end so they can return to work next week. For Michelson Nelson, Spokesman of the Haitian Customs Association, the only thing the government can do to find a solution to the crisis is to publish the document. "Otherwise, the strike will continue again next week," he insisted.
