Union of Labor in Tunisia decides a new general strike in two days

Tunisia's largest trade union organization, Tunisia's largest trade union organization, has decided to launch a public strike on the public and public sector on February 20 and 21, if no agreement is reached with the government on rising wages in the public sector. the government.

If implemented, the strike will be the third after the strikes of November 22 and January 17, against the background of the wage-rise crisis.

The Secretary-General of the General Union of Tunisian Labor, Noureddine Tabboubi said today that the new general strike scheduled in February next; aims to "modify the national options to serve the interests of the people."

"The demand for increases comes to modify the purchasing power," he said, in response to the breach of previous agreements related to the review of the law governing the public sector.

"The aim is not to strike, but to work with the government to clean up the social climate and to complete the institutions that will lead us to hold free and fair elections within their legal deadlines and to ensure the success of the democratic process," he said.

An escalating crisis
The EU's decision foresees an escalating crisis with the government, which earlier announced the country's inability to meet the new increases due to the fiscal crisis and the difficult economic situation.

The government has offered proposals to increase, but the union said it did not meet minimum financial demands as prices and inflation rose.

The Union often accuses the government of lending to the International Monetary Fund, which earlier called for a package of economic reforms, control of the wage mass, to save public finances and achieve growth.

For his part, the Minister of Social Affairs and a member of the government delegation negotiator Mohamed Trabelsi said that the negotiations between the two parties will resume next week, stressing that the two parties are closest to reaching an agreement on the increase in wages of more than 650 thousand workers in public office.

The current crisis is preceded by the legislative and presidential elections scheduled for the end of this year, the second since the drafting of a new constitution in 2014, and the third since the start of the political transition in 2011 after the fall of former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.