Haiti’s garment manufacturing sector, one of the country’s largest formal employers with tens of thousands of workers in industrial parks north of Port-au-Prince, was fighting to survive the political crisis that had repeatedly shut down operations and shaken investor confidence. Factory managers reported that production targets were being missed, orders were being delayed, and some international buyers were beginning to explore alternative sourcing options.
The industry had been one of the success stories of recent years in Haiti, benefiting from preferential trade agreements with the United States under the HOPE and HELP Acts that gave Haitian-made garments duty-free access to the U.S. market. Factory workers, while earning wages that critics argued were inadequate, had at least steady formal employment — a relative rarity in Haiti’s labor market.
Workers themselves described an impossible situation: they needed their wages to survive, but the roads to the industrial parks were frequently blocked by protests, and moving through areas of unrest was dangerous. Many reported losing days of pay during protest periods, losses they could ill afford.
Industry associations called on all sides of the political dispute to ensure that the garment factories could operate regardless of the broader political situation, arguing that destroying jobs would only deepen the poverty that fueled social unrest in the first place.