A public transport strike last week in the Tunisian capital, brought the capital virtually to a halt, with 80% of all bus and metro workers on strike the city came to a standstill.

The strike was called for by the new independent Union for Public Transport Workers, the assistant General Secretary of the union Hassan Al-Kenzari,  said that among other reasons the strike was called following the consistent sidelining of the various independent unions that have been formed in the Transport sector since the uprising broke out and management’s refusal to sit at negotiation tables to discuss the workers’ demands and this is after the Transport Minister in the current interim government decided to cancel a meeting that was scheduled on the 4^th of August.

The workers are demanding union pluralism, the payment of salaries that they have not received, higher wages based on promises they were given, and automatic promotions for those who have been working in Public Transport for over 15 years.