Bordeaux, the 14-10-99 Registered mail (Ack. of receipt)

Alain DONNART - Data processing and Translations -
14 rue François-Lévêque 33300 Bordeaux
Tél & Fax 05 56 50 53 09
E- mail adonnart@free.fr
to
Mr. Jean-Bernard DELMAS
Director
Château Haut - Brion
33608 PESSAC Cedex

Dear Sir

   Thank you for your fax and to Mr BARATIER who, on his own initiative, passed you on my registered letter.

Allow me however to be quite surprised by the contents of this fax :

1° You use conditional to evoke the assaults, humiliations and depredations of property I have exposed. It is quite unbelievable that you are still unaware of events which ocurred in the estate during several years, in full view of more than a hundred grapeharvesters and with the participation or at least without the intervention of the foremen. This alone can already involve your employer's liability, if the shareholders of the DILLON Co. hear about it or when the debate on the "institutional / traditional violence" is opened publicly, what will happen very soon.
So, let me inform you that your position is not bearable any longer.

2° Although you say "we" for the inquiry you carry out, it is quite unbelievable that when Mr . BARATIER gave you the the aforementioned letter, you did not ask him about what he knew and that he could have told you that he knew nothing. Actually, even though he can argue that he was not present the last afternoon of the harvest, moment when these facts tend to increase, he was there at the same time last year, and if he stepped in to stop them, it is only after the first chosen targets had been thrown in the 'trap for villains'.
Therefore, even though I acknowledge he is quite fair in other respects, he was too tolerant faced with such humiliating treatments that the Minister of justice has ordered to penalize henceforth without weakness.

3° If the working community implies certain kind of team spirit which prevented you to be informed, it seems unlikely that this connivance - friendliness of the rib steak on vine shoots, etc. - will stop as if by magic and does not lead the aggressors (and those in charge who did not intervene or at least not from the start, all the more beforehand) to minimize these facts, because they will not be able to deny them for long. At the same time, and it is quite a concern for an impartial inquiry, why don't you try to get full information from the victims ?
As for me, I can tell you that I hold a certain number of concordant signs and verifiable details at your disposal. I would have you know as well that some victims who did not want to lose a source of income are now ready to give evidence, insofar as this doesn't jeopardize their future.

On the other hand, I know by experience the justifications, apologies and arguments which will be presented to you, as well as with regard to the assaults, humiliations, harassments and the depredations of property. It will be easy to show that the repetition of these facts against several grape pickers excludes casual circumstances and personal dispute. In fact, it's all about a deliberate will of their authors of asserting their male chauvinist rule (see the 1999 photo), and those who tolerate them just want to maintain the 'community' of 'the castle's people', while consolidating the obedience of the troop.

Finally, the only explanation I can find in these 3 abnormalities, is that, as it involved a fax which could be read by the office staff, you wanted to show that you must protect your personnel a priori. For this same reason, I fork out another registered letter (instead of a more economic and faster fax) and ask you to let me know - because it is best for all not to weaken the prestige of Bordeaux wines - how I can inform you of these details, and of my proposals for solutions - without informing all the staff :
You choose to give me an address where I can safely write (~ mail / fax / email …), or let us arrange a meeting in some quiet place, what would have the precious advantage to balance your inquiry.

I expect a fast answer from you, which will appease my surprise.

<< Home Page < Chronology < 13-10-99       3-11-99 >