The Tunisian General Labor Union decided to call for a new strike across the country in response to what it described as the government's "intransigence" and its ignoring of social demands, after the current June 16 strike, which the union described as successful.
The Secretary-General of the Union, Noureddine Taboubi, said - in a press conference at the conclusion of the meetings of the administrative body of the union in the city of Hammamet today, Monday - that the administrative body took the decision of the general strike in the public sector and the public service, and delegated the National Executive Office of the union to determine its date and arrangement.
The latest confrontation between the General Labor Union - the largest trade union organization in the country - and Tunisian President Kais Saied comes at a time when the government is preparing to start formal negotiations with the International Monetary Fund to obtain a loan that will save it from bankruptcy in exchange for measures that include reducing food and fuel subsidies and freezing wages.
"Even after 10 days of the general strike (on June 16), the government did not call for dialogue," Taboubi said, adding that this is "a systematic policy that wants to give an image to the International Monetary Fund that it is the only government that has not responded to the workers' demands."
The union calls on the Tunisian government to increase employees' wages and enhance their purchasing power, in addition to other social demands related to improving their employment conditions.
The national strike organized by the Federation on June 16 paralyzed life in the country, as public transportation was suspended and flights were cancelled.
Taboubi said earlier this month that the UGTT was being targeted by the authorities after it refused to participate in talks on the new draft constitution that President Saeed seeks to put to a public referendum next month.
However, the Labor Union denies that the strike is political, in light of a crisis that the country has been experiencing since July 25, 2021, when President Saeed began imposing exceptional measures, including dismissing the government, dissolving Parliament, the Supreme Judicial Council, and others.
The union said, in a statement issued today, at the conclusion of its administrative body meetings, that it rejects "the attempts of the Ennahda Movement and some components of the Salvation Front to use the strike for their own agendas and rob the workers' struggles," as he put it.
On the other hand, the judicial authorities decided to release the former Prime Minister, Hamadi Al-Jabali, after he started a hunger strike since his arrest last Friday.
Al-Jabali said - on his Facebook account - that the 23rd investigative judge at the Judicial Pole decided to release him.
The lawyer and leader of the National Salvation Front, Samir Dilo, had said - in previous statements - that the former prime minister was transferred to intensive care, and refused to take the medicines brought by his family.