I am looking to learn about the employee unions. If they exist and what areas of business do they exist in? Are they similar to ones in NYC?
- Thread starter QuantaHealth
- Start date
Does the DR have Employee Unions?
Any particular place I can read and learn about them? The different groups and how/where they operate?
Los Padres de Familias y Due?os del Pa?s
The various groups are organized in
Confederaci?n Nacional de Unidad Sindical (CNUS)
Consejo Nacional de Unidad Sindical
Calle Juan Erazo No. 14, Edificio Centrales Sindicales, Villa Juana
Santo Domingo, D.N., Rep?blica Dominicana.
Tels: 221-2158 (!), Fax : 689-1248 (!)
e-mail:
cnus@verizon.net.do
CNUS.org.do
Their website is not very informative....
Maybe they give you a list of their members when you call them....
donP
The various groups are organized in
Confederaci?n Nacional de Unidad Sindical (CNUS)
Consejo Nacional de Unidad Sindical
Calle Juan Erazo No. 14, Edificio Centrales Sindicales, Villa Juana
Santo Domingo, D.N., Rep?blica Dominicana.
Tels: 221-2158 (!), Fax : 689-1248 (!)
e-mail:
cnus@verizon.net.do
CNUS.org.do
Their website is not very informative....
Maybe they give you a list of their members when you call them....
donP
Are there any hotel employee unions? Or tourism related unions? Airports, transportation, etc etc..?
The large presence of illegal immigrants from Haiti has weakened considerably the power of many unions.
I'll give two examples:
Construction
Employers claim that Dominicans don't want to do construction work and the Haitians do, but the Dominican construction union claims that they have thousands of Dominican construction workers eager to work and the construction companies don't hire a single one. Construction companies don't want to deal with higher wages, better working conditions, and benefits.
Agriculture
Employers claim that Dominicans don't want to work in the fields while the Haitians do; but right now farmers in the Linea Noroeste (the northwestern quadrant of the country) are already complaining that now that most of their formerly undocumented Haitian workers have regularized their migration/legal status, they are leaving the fields in droves and moving to the major cities. A few days ago an article was published in Listin Diario where the farmers claim that if this continues they will face a shortage of workers.
The long term solution to such shortage is increasing wages, improving working conditions, offer the legally established benefits, and adopt the most up to date management practices to make the companies efficient. They do that and suddenly there will be no shortage of Dominican workers.
The Haitians with legal status are not leaving the fields because suddenly they became lazy, they are leaving because now they are on equal footing with average Dominican workers, the regularized Haitians now are actual people and no one with choices is willing to work for the meagre pay, horrible working conditions, and non-existent benefits that dominates the sections of DR's labor market that are grossly distorted by the injection of a massive number of illegal immigrants. Suddenly Haitians with equal rights as a Dominican are reacting as Dominicans react and, if no new source of illegals is allowed to enter the country, the producers will have to choose between modernizing their companies (which includes higher pay and better working conditions in addition to adopting the most modern management practices to make their companies profitable with the extra costs) or go out of business or sell their business to those employers that are willing to do the changes the workforce conditions imposes on them. If massive amount of new illegals is allowed to enter and replace the Haitians that are now people and are leaving the fields, the nothing will change.
There's another impact from the incursion of massive numbers of illegals and that is the downward pressure of the wages even in sectors where illegal Haitians are not numerous. The hundreds of thousands of Dominicans that would work in agriculture/construction/etc if the conditions are what the Dominican labor market dictates, they move into other sectors dominated by Dominican workers in search of those jobs. This extra competition puts a tremendous pressure for wages to remain lower than what the Dominican labor market conditions (excluding the illegals) would dictate if it was respected. The availability of the illegals guarantees that the reality of the Dominican labor market can be ignored by employers.
I'll give two examples:
Construction
Employers claim that Dominicans don't want to do construction work and the Haitians do, but the Dominican construction union claims that they have thousands of Dominican construction workers eager to work and the construction companies don't hire a single one. Construction companies don't want to deal with higher wages, better working conditions, and benefits.
Agriculture
Employers claim that Dominicans don't want to work in the fields while the Haitians do; but right now farmers in the Linea Noroeste (the northwestern quadrant of the country) are already complaining that now that most of their formerly undocumented Haitian workers have regularized their migration/legal status, they are leaving the fields in droves and moving to the major cities. A few days ago an article was published in Listin Diario where the farmers claim that if this continues they will face a shortage of workers.
The long term solution to such shortage is increasing wages, improving working conditions, offer the legally established benefits, and adopt the most up to date management practices to make the companies efficient. They do that and suddenly there will be no shortage of Dominican workers.
The Haitians with legal status are not leaving the fields because suddenly they became lazy, they are leaving because now they are on equal footing with average Dominican workers, the regularized Haitians now are actual people and no one with choices is willing to work for the meagre pay, horrible working conditions, and non-existent benefits that dominates the sections of DR's labor market that are grossly distorted by the injection of a massive number of illegal immigrants. Suddenly Haitians with equal rights as a Dominican are reacting as Dominicans react and, if no new source of illegals is allowed to enter the country, the producers will have to choose between modernizing their companies (which includes higher pay and better working conditions in addition to adopting the most modern management practices to make their companies profitable with the extra costs) or go out of business or sell their business to those employers that are willing to do the changes the workforce conditions imposes on them. If massive amount of new illegals is allowed to enter and replace the Haitians that are now people and are leaving the fields, the nothing will change.
There's another impact from the incursion of massive numbers of illegals and that is the downward pressure of the wages even in sectors where illegal Haitians are not numerous. The hundreds of thousands of Dominicans that would work in agriculture/construction/etc if the conditions are what the Dominican labor market dictates, they move into other sectors dominated by Dominican workers in search of those jobs. This extra competition puts a tremendous pressure for wages to remain lower than what the Dominican labor market conditions (excluding the illegals) would dictate if it was respected. The availability of the illegals guarantees that the reality of the Dominican labor market can be ignored by employers.
Hotel Driver Unions
Al in all there must be more than a thousand... :bunny:
This is a list (most likely incomplete) of 100 tourist transport unions only:
http://www.sectur.gob.do/portals/0/docs/listado_asociaciones_sindicatos_taxi_turistico.pdf
One in Las Terrenas has a nice abbreviated name: ASOCHOTRATUTENA :laugh:
Many are organized on a local level or exclusively for a certain hotel.
donP
Al in all there must be more than a thousand... :bunny:
This is a list (most likely incomplete) of 100 tourist transport unions only:
http://www.sectur.gob.do/portals/0/docs/listado_asociaciones_sindicatos_taxi_turistico.pdf
One in Las Terrenas has a nice abbreviated name: ASOCHOTRATUTENA :laugh:
Many are organized on a local level or exclusively for a certain hotel.
donP
i disagree that regularization of Haitians will cause wages to go up. the fact that they are legally here does not mean they are in a position to demand higher wages. they will still be fighting for a space in the same job pool, and the only way to hold that space is to be willing to work for lower wages than Dominicans. there is, of course, going to be urban drift, because the marginal returns to labor in the city are greater than those in agrarian settings, but the returns will equalize over time when the influx overpowers the need for workers. the excess labor will return to the rural areas, where living might be less costly. the rest will find themselves going into informal self employment, which has always been the case, to a large degree.