More than 1,000 workers gathered outside the Sonapi industrial park (a state-owned manufacturing zone in Port-au-Prince) on Monday to demand higher minimum wages, as rising global oil prices linked to tensions in Iran compound an already severe economic crisis in Haiti. The Haitian government raised diesel prices by 37% and gasoline by 29% earlier this month, pushing the cost of a gallon of fuel above the daily minimum wage of 685 gourdes (approximately $5.23). Workers say they have received no pay increase since 2023 and are struggling to afford food and transport, with some reporting they now walk an hour each way to work to save money — a burden made worse by gang-controlled transit routes that have driven up bus fares across the capital.