28 October, 2014Morroccan workers across all public and private industries conducted a 24-hour general strike on 29 October, in protest of the government’s blocking out of unions from important labour policy decisions.
Frustration is high in the Moroccan trade union movement after the government has refused all collective dialogue on a raft of fundamental issues facing workers. Those issues include wages, working conditions, pensions, social compensation, under a context of serious reduction in purchasing power as utility and transport costs are increasing.
The government’s refusal to conduct dialogue with the unions on these core issues violates national labour legislation as well as the ILO standards.
IndustriALL Global Union general secretary Jyrki Raina wrote to the Moroccan affiliated unions on 28 October:
We stand firm in solidarity with Moroccan workers in their national strike, which will take place tomorrow 29 October, calling on the government to sit down with the unions to negotiate collectively matters of fundamental importance to workers and citizens alike such as wages, working conditions, the Compensation Fund and the National Pension Fund.
IndustriALL Global Union calls on the government of Morocco to address without any delay the legitimate concerns and demands of the Moroccan workers.
The strike action is called and organized by the three main national trade union centres in the country, The Union Marocaine du Travail (UMT), Confédération Démocratique du Travail (CDT), and Fédération Démocratique du Travail (FDT).
The Moroccan government are under pressure from international lenders, through the International Monetary Fund, to cut public spending and implement the anti-worker reforms to pensions and social provisions. But the strong, united message from the general strike tomorrow is for the regressive reforms not to be included in the 2015 budget.
Much of the subsidies under threat now were those won by the social movement in 2011 as part of the Arab Spring. Government spending then kept the regime in place, while neighbouring countries’ autocrats were removed from power.
"We have been the first to want reforms, but it is up to the government to support the costs as workers should not have to pay for the manager's mistakes," Miloudi Moukharik, leader of the biggest Moroccan labour union, UMT, said.
Send solidarity messages to the IndustriALL Global Union affiliates in Morocco here.