June 28. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The main union in Tunisia, the General Union of Tunisian Workers (UGTT), has announced a new general strike in the public sector, although for now it has not announced a specific date for the protest.
The UGTT has applauded the “great success” of the general strike on June 16 and has highlighted “the solidarity campaign shown by officials and the private sector”, for which it has asked that “they be prepared to defend their rights”.
Likewise, he has shown his “absolute rejection” of the reform program promoted by the Tunisian president, Kais Saied, who last week received the go-ahead from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) ahead of the start of negotiations on an aid package.
The UGTT has maintained that this reform program “wasted the properties and sovereignty of the people”, for which it has shown its willingness to “confront it by all legitimate means”.
The union has also denounced “attempts” by the Islamist Ennahda party and National Salvation Front parties to “use the strike” on June 16 “in favor of their own agendas” and “steal the workers’ struggle.”
Along these lines, he has criticized the Government for “continuing its policy of ignoring and undervaluing the demands of the workers” and has rejected “the systematic attack on the right to negotiate” and “the intransigence” of the Tunisian authorities.
Likewise, it has condemned in a statement published on the social network Facebook “the campaigns of intimidation, demonization and treason against trade unionists”, launched by “suspicious parties and pages known for the violation of rights and their hostility towards the union”.
The UGTT has underlined that “some of these parties claim to be linked to the president and has emphasized that these accusations “only increase the determination” of the trade unionists to “maintain the struggle and respond in practice”.
Finally, the union has called on the authorities to “seriously address” the demands of the judges, after more than three weeks of strike in the sector due to Saied’s decision to dismiss about 60 magistrates for alleged corruption and cover-up terrorism suspects.
Saied is facing growing criticism for the economic crisis and the exceptional measures adopted since May 2021, when he dissolved the Government and suspended Parliament –later dissolved– to assume all powers, a measure denounced by numerous parties, including the Islamist Ennahda.
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