2 cents a day for sugar production

[Guest guest]

Yet another reason to not eat sugar...

CNN.com - 360° Blog

Monday, December 18, 2006

Is sugar production modern day slavery?

Haitian children in a sugarcane worker settlement in the Dominican

Republic.Is the sugar you eat a product of slave labor? That's the

accusation leveled by one of the readers of this blog, who pointed us to the

Dominican Republic, where, she said, Haitian migrant workers are kept in

slave camps, forced to work in the fields under armed guard, for a pittance.

It was a powerful charge, and some human rights groups say the accusation

has merit. With the United States slowly increasing the amount of Dominican

sugar sold here, we thought we'd check it out. What we found there was not

slavery by any definition, but working conditions that were not acceptable

by U.S. standards.

One of the nation's most powerful sugar families, the Vicinis, had decided

to open its doors to a U.S. congressional delegation heading there on a

fact-finding mission. We suspected the company would put its best face

forward, but we tagged along anyway.

Sugar cane workers live in what are called bateys, small settlements of a

few hundred people dotted among the cane fields. The Vicinis showed us one

of the bateys. It appeared to have plumbing and electricity; the people

seemed happy, and there was a shop, and a school.

But just down the road, we came across another batey, where other Vicini

workers lived, that was not on the official tour. No running water, no

electricity, too little food. The old or infirm looked like they were

starving. One old man told us he hadn't eaten in four days. Children told us

they planted cane in Vicini fields for three pesos a row. It takes a half

day to plant a row. Three pesos is a penny.

The company says it doesn't hire children, but that it can't always control

what unscrupulous subcontractors do. And it said it is trying to improve the

lives of the workers, with an ambitious plan to build hundreds of new

houses.

Along a roadside near the batey, we found people in some desperate straits:

One man in his 50s was working on a Sunday, all day, to earn the equivalent

of about $5, some of which he sent home to his children in Haiti, who he

said were starving. And that's the problem: the reason these people work for

so little is that there's even less where they came from. They're out of

options, and without the legal rights of Dominican citizens, they're

effectively voiceless.

Under terms of the Central American Free Trade Agreement, the U.S.

government is slowly increasing the amount of sugar that can be imported

from the Dominican Republic. The members of Congress told the Dominican

government that they would need to improve conditions for the workers.

According to a Reuters report, the Dominican government told them to stop

interfering.

Regards,

Do not follow where the path may lead;

go instead where there is no path and

leave a trail.