By James Parks, AFL-CIO Now Blog

http://blog.aflcio.org/2010/04/04/respect-workers-rights-when-rebuilding-haiti/

Domini­can union truck dri­vers carry sup­plies to Hait­ian work­ers in Port-au-Prince.

This week, trade union­ists from around the world will meet in Santo Domingo, Domini­can Repub­lic, to draft a road map for rebuild­ing Haiti. Unions have already made it clear the recon­struc­tion and future devel­op­ment of Haiti must include social pro­tec­tions, cre­ation of decent work and respect for work­ers’ rights.

In a state­ment to the U.N. Donor’s Con­fer­ence last week, the Inter­na­tional Trade Union Con­fed­er­a­tion (ITUC) called for a major inter­na­tional aid mobi­liza­tion to rebuild the country’s dev­as­tated infra­struc­ture and econ­omy. At the Donor’s Conference, Secretary of State Hillary Rod­ham Clin­ton announced the United States has pledged $1.15 bil­lion for Haiti’s reconstruction.

ITUC is orga­niz­ing the Santo Domingo meet­ing along with its regional orga­ni­za­tion for the Trade Union Con­fed­er­a­tion of the Amer­i­cas (TUCA) and Global Union Fed­er­a­tions PSI and EI.

ITUC Gen­eral Sec­re­tary Guy Ryder said:

Rebuild­ing and defin­ing a new devel­op­ment model for Haiti is a huge task that will require sus­tained inter­na­tional sup­port. Today, trade unions, par­tic­u­larly in Haiti, must be involved in it. In the past, the coun­try was char­ac­ter­ized by a huge infor­mal econ­omy, severe poverty and haz­ardous and poorly paid work for much of the work­force in the for­mal econ­omy. There is now an oppor­tu­nity to change that for the bet­ter, and we are call­ing on inter­na­tional insti­tu­tions, donor gov­ern­ments and the Hait­ian gov­ern­ment to pro­vide decent eco­nomic oppor­tu­ni­ties for Haitians.

Fol­low­ing the dev­as­tat­ing Jan. 12 earth­quake, trade unions around the world mobi­lized sup­port on an unprece­dented scale. The AFL-CIO Sol­i­dar­ity Cen­ter acted quickly to send needed sup­plies and sup­port to its Hait­ian part­ners through a union-to-union effort that pro­vides short-term emer­gency aid and builds toward long-term recon­struc­tion and strength­en­ing of Haiti’s union movement.