TUNIS, Jan 2, 2023 (Xinhua) — Employees and workers of the Tunisian State Transportation Company staged a strike today (Monday), including on passenger buses and metro trains in Greater Tunis, to protest late payment of their salaries, in a Transport Minister Rabie Majidi called “random and unjustified”.
Today, the Greater Tunis region, which includes four governorates, Tunis, Ben Arous, Ariana and Manouba, witnessed a strike by employees and workers of the Tunisian Transport Company to protest the delayed payment of their salaries.
The official Tunisian news agency said: “The streets of Tunis have witnessed a complete paralysis of public transport due to a protest movement by employees of the Tunis Transport Company today.”
He added that the employees and workers of the Tunisian Transport Company “gathered in the government square of the Kasbah in a workers’ rally, during which they chanted many slogans to demand their rights in the face of what has been described as” the government’s total disregard for the sector’s problems, including late payment of salaries and persistence in pursuing a policy of procrastination and non-compliance with its commitments.
The agency quoted Wajih al-Zaidi, secretary general of the General Union of Transport affiliated to the Tunisian General Union of Labor, the country’s largest trade union organization, as saying that “the employees of the Tunis Transport Company have decided to join a Open strike starting today until the Ministry of Transport responds to a number of demands represented in the supply of workers.” their wages and dues that have not been paid to date.
He added: “The government has turned its back on the vital demands of the company’s employees, who suffer from the deterioration of the transport fleet in Tunisia, as well as the lack of seriousness in finding solutions to save this sector linked to the daily life of Tunisians.” .
On the other hand, the agency quoted the Tunisian Transport Minister this evening as “denies the justifications provided by the General Transport Union regarding the sudden interruption of the work carried out today by the employees of the Tunisian Transport Company”.
In this regard, he confirmed that, since last Thursday, the salaries and all financial expenses of the employees of this company, estimated at 8.4 million dinars (2.625 million dollars), have been paid.
Majidi described this strike as “a casual interruption of work without warning and without guaranteeing the minimum level of functioning of public facilities according to what should be done”, underlining that “the Tunisian transport company will take the necessary legal measures regarding what was issued today.”
This strike comes at a time when relations between the Tunisian general union and the government, as well as the presidential establishment, are witnessing unprecedented apathy, so much so that Salah El-Din Al-Salmi, deputy general secretary of the union, he said in a statement that “the Tunisian general union’s relationship with power is at its worst”.
This strike is the first in a series of initiatives that the Tunisian General Union intends to implement, noting that the General Union of Transport in Tunisia had decided to implement a general strike in the land, sea and air transport sector on 25 and 26 January. .
The secretary general of the Tunisian General Transport Union announced this imminent strike in a statement released by the official Tunisian news agency on the evening of December 28.
Al-Zaidi believed that the strike, which should be implemented, falls within the framework of union movements to ask “to save the sector from the crisis it is experiencing”, he said.
