Sen. Rudy Boulos, founding board member of the Haiti Democracy Project, helps bring a thousand new jobs to the CODEVI (Industrial Development Company) plant in the Ouanaminthe free-trade zone in the Nord-Est Department. Involves creating an evening shift making possible the hiring of another thousand in existing factory.
He negotiated among:
- Grupo M, the Dominican textile manufacturer currently operating and generating employment in the CODEVI free-trade zone.
- The Haitian government, for necessary facilitation of labor laws
- The International Finance Corporation
- The Batay Ouvriye (workers’ struggle) organization
Got them all to agree and make it happen!
Next step: opening some entirely new factories in the zone.
The CODEVI initiative has had its share of controversy and getting all these balky actors on the same page was no mean feat!