Focus: Union rights in a region of dynamic change

Abstract

Talking about the trade unions rights in a dynamic region such as the Arab World these days is really not an easy task. At the time where people lose their lives across the region, Syria, Yemen, Libya, and elsewhere, we still note the increase of the attacks by governments against democratic unions and the right of the trade unions to act on a democratic environment. In this article I will be talking about trade unions rights in different Arab countries, including countries who don’t accept any trade union activities like, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and UAE. The region can’t be taken as one block in respect of trade unions rights, as each country has its own characteristics: Morocco The nature and structure of the trade unions in Morocco is very similar to the French trade unions structure, where there are more than one federation representing the workers at the same entity, and the most representative federation has the right to negotiate. Many of the federations in Morocco belongs to political parties and implement the parties’ agendas, so, if the party is part of the government you find its associated federation supporting government policies, and they will change their role if the party is out of the government. Another important area is to note that for the last ten years the (Islamist) Justice and Development Party has been in power as the party won enough seats to form the government. This right wing party has a clear agenda to undermine trade unions rights in Morocco. The ITF and ITUC affiliate the UMT realised the party’s intention after a series of moves, starting from amending the pension law, reaching to suggest the amendment of the labour code to restrict the right to strike in Morocco, which is guaranteed by the Moroccan constitution. The UMT, with other federations, formed the alliance trade union group to defend the right to strike, and declared a one-month campaign, where hundreds of thousands of its members demonstrated against the government intentions to restrict the right to strike. Algeria In Algeria the situation is a bit different where the UGTA is still the biggest and more active federation, with representation all over the country. During the last five years when the oil prices have been dropped, workers started to face pressures on their economic situations, as the rise in fuel prices led to inflation in the cost of living. As Algeria ratified ILO Conventions No. 87 and No. 98, other independent unions are active in some sectors as education and health. Some of these unions outside the UGTA lead long strikes demanding improving working conditions. These unions have never been supported by the UGTA or its affiliated unions, and claim that they were under pressure by the government authorities. We can say that that the most represented federation, the UGTA, has representation across the country, with CBAs in most of the sectors, and the non UGTA unions are active in some sectors, but face pressure on their activities. Tunisia The UGTT is the lead trade union federation in Tunisia, where it plays a major role political developments as well, since they are part of the Carthage Declaration, which lead to the stabilisation of the country. The UGTT was one of the four organisations who received the Nobel Prize in 2016 due its contribution to the peace in Tunisia. Now, political and security pressures, have lead the country to lose more than 30 percent of tourism, which used to highly contribute to economy. The World Bank and IMF intervened putting more pressure on to the social situation, to facilitate loans to the government. The government started a series of actions to introduce privatisation, PPP, and liberalisations to many sectors. For example, the government announced plans to sign an open skies agreement with the EU, which will put more challenges on the national carrier, Tunis Air, which is unionised and facing challenges due to the drop in tourism. On the other hand, its worth mentioning that the UGTT unions are very active in all sectors, to the extent that employers and government think that the unions are one of the reasons of the economical deteriorations. Libya During...