PCS Workers on Strike

Although it remains difficult to find primary source materials from the voices of workers in the early moments of Haitian labor history, the Port-au-Prince paper, Le Matin, provides a few examples. In early September 1908, the mechanics, drivers, and employees in the workshops of the German Compagnie des Chemins de fer de la Plaine du Cul-de-Sac went on strike for higher wages. According to Le Matin and Le Nouvelliste, service for the train was discontinued in Port-au-Prince for a few days, until the strike was resolved by the eighth day of the month. 

What, however, makes this brief strike of industrial workers important or memorable? First, this may have been the first strike to unite different types of workers, instead of the previous strikes of workers or artisans of a specific trade. Unfortunately, in this PCS employee strike, those working in the ateliers ended the strike before the mechanics and drivers, a strike of this nature may be a portent of future solidarity strikes and walk-outs and major foreign-owned companies, such as HASCO. This can also be distinguished from the walkout of shoemakers at Tannerie Continentale, where the tanners remained. 

Last, but certainly not least, the striking workers sent a letter to the director of PCS, Tippenhauer, who shared it with Le Matin, providing some idea of how the strikers saw themselves, who they were, their specialized jobs, and their names. Unfortunately, the letter, as reproduced in Le Matin, is too short, but still a valuable document on an early company strike in Haiti. Although additional research must be conducted into the history of the PCS and subsequent labor actions and unions among drivers and railway workers in Haiti, perhaps these incipient labor actions involving foreign industries in Haiti shed light on the process of working-class formation.