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**spineeupsenry** · 10-29-2010, 06:38 PM

It's not 'free labor.'

1. They earn more than a typical Haitian earns in Haiti (I highly doubt you have ever referred to Haitians employed in Haiti as 'free labor,' so don't do it to their better paid counterparts east of the border).

2. They are paid above the minimum wage for the sector.

3. Total wages in 2008 in the sugar industry was almost US$92 million vs. a little more than US$57 million the industry paid in taxes to the Dominican government, plus roughly US$10 million in company sponsored education, health, cultural and sports related activities towards their employees and families.

That's too much money for it to even remotely be considered 'free labor.'

Your point number one - you have successfully missed or purposely overstepped my point yet again, congrats.

Your point number two - Who are they??? Every Haitian that comes to the Dominican Republic? Every Haitian that works at a Batey? I'm glad that you have already taken the time to verify that ALL of 'them' are paid the minimum wage in that sector, sure takes a load off me and all of the paper work I was planning on doing, thanks.

Your point number three - not everybody in the "sugar industry" works in a Batey, clearly. Just like not everybody that works in the fast food industry is flipping a burger. There are people And even if that number was supposed to represent the amount of money actually getting in the hands of the workers (many of which come for the harvest SEASON), then you have missed the points made about how numbers can easily (are often) are skewed, exaggerated or sometimes plain ol' incorrect. And lets just say that such a number actually represented reality, it still would not mean much of anything without knowing how many Haitians there are working in the industry. Then after subtracting all the other people, positions that ALSO make up the Sugar Industry we could get somewhere.

10-29-2010, 06:38 PM	#22
spineeupsenry Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 453 Senior Member	It's not 'free labor.' 1. They earn more than a typical Haitian earns in Haiti (I highly doubt you have ever referred to Haitians employed in Haiti as 'free labor,' so don't do it to their better paid counterparts east of the border). 2. They are paid above the minimum wage for the sector. 3. Total wages in 2008 in the sugar industry was almost US$92 million vs. a little more than US$57 million the industry paid in taxes to the Dominican government, plus roughly US$10 million in company sponsored education, health, cultural and sports related activities towards their employees and families. That's too much money for it to even remotely be considered 'free labor.' Your point number one - you have successfully missed or purposely overstepped my point yet again, congrats. Your point number two - Who are they??? Every Haitian that comes to the Dominican Republic? Every Haitian that works at a Batey? I'm glad that you have already taken the time to verify that ALL of 'them' are paid the minimum wage in that sector, sure takes a load off me and all of the paper work I was planning on doing, thanks. Your point number three - not everybody in the "sugar industry" works in a Batey, clearly. Just like not everybody that works in the fast food industry is flipping a burger. There are people And even if that number was supposed to represent the amount of money actually getting in the hands of the workers (many of which come for the harvest SEASON), then you have missed the points made about how numbers can easily (are often) are skewed, exaggerated or sometimes plain ol' incorrect. And lets just say that such a number actually represented reality, it still would not mean much of anything without knowing how many Haitians there are working in the industry. Then after subtracting all the other people, positions that ALSO make up the Sugar Industry we could get somewhere.
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