North America and Caribbean

Support to joint trade union campaign in Haiti

Despite many obstacles, Education International’s Haitian affiliates are jointly campaigning for quality public education and the establishment of a dialogue with the Minister of Education. They are also supporting a statute for teachers in the private sector.

In August 2018, the four member organisations of Education International (EI), the Fédération nationale des travailleurs en éducation et en culture(FENATEC), the Konfederasyon Nasyonal Anseyan Dayiti(CNEH), the Union nationale des normaliens d'Haïti(UNNOH) and the Union nationale des normalien·ne·s et éducateur·rice·s d’Haïti(UNNOEH), agreed to organise a campaign in the different regions of Haiti for quality public education, the establishment of a social dialogue with the Minister for Education, and union building and renewal.

This campaign, supported by EI, was implemented in September 2018 and confirmed high expectations among teachers who want to mobilise. At the end of the tour, the unions made a list of teachers’ demands, covering a number of issues such as cleaning up the school environment for public and private schools, the construction of laboratories and refectories in schools, and the creation of technical and vocational secondary schools in each of the country’s geographical departments. In December 2018, this list was submitted to the Minister for Education, but has not yet received any response.

In response to a call by the Plateforme des Syndicats d’Enseignants Haïtiens(PSEH), to which the CNEH and UNNOEH belong, a teachers’ strike took place nationwide from 28-29 January in an attempt to get the Minister to respond to the groups’ demands, revive efforts to obtain their salary arrears and salary adjustments and for the general improvement of working conditions in the educational sector. Another day of strikes was subsequently organised by the platform on 11 February.