A nation-wide strike by secondary school teachers emptied classrooms across Tunisia on 22 and 23 January. Lasad Yacoubi, General Secretary of the General Union of Secondary School Teachers said on Friday “our key differences with the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Youth and Sport are over our main demands over our conditions at…
Secondary school teachers across Tunisia are preparing for strike action on 22 and 23 January. The Secondary School Teachers General Union, which is part of the UGTT union federation is demanding changes to the school curriculum and improvements in pay and grading for teachers. In a statement on 8 December, the union attacked the government…
The UGTT union federation, which represents hundreds of thousands of Tunisian workers, has called a general strike on 13 December in response to attacks on its offices by thugs affiliated to the ruling Islamist Ennahda Party. (Read the full statement here in French) Mohamed Sghaeir Saihi, deputy secretary of the UGTT’s regional executive in the…
MENA Solidarity Network has organised for Mohamed Sghaier Saihi, spokesperson for the teachers’ union in the UGTT union federation in the Kasserine region of Tunisia, to visit the UK at the invitation of the Ealing and Oxford local associations of the National Union of Teachers. Read more on Kasserine’s struggle since the Tunisian revolution here.…
Teachers and the Arab Spring Eyewitness reports from Tunisia, Egypt and Bahrain Monday 12 November, 7.30pm Committee Room 8, House of Commons, SW1A 2TT Speakers: Mohamed Sghaier Saihi: UGTT union federation, teachers’ spokesman in the Kasserine region Mary Compton: NUT activist and editor of Teachersolidarity website, recently returned from a delegation to Egypt Ali Alaswad:…
Guest post by Mohamed Sghaier Saihi, UGTT union federation executive member, Kasserine province Tunisia has seen waves of strikes and protests against the policies of the Islamist Ennahdha Party in recent months. In the Kasserine region, for example we saw general strikes in Majel Bel Abbès two months ago, in Thala three weeks ago, in…
Interview with Mohamed Sghaier Saihi, Assistant General Secretary of the regional union federation in Kassrine, Tunisia. We interviewed him by email on 8 August. MENA Solidarity: What are the main causes of workers’ anger in Tunisia at the moment? Mohamed Sghaier: Here are the main causes of the revolutionary process: 1- The high rate of unemployment,…
Thousands of Tunisians marched to mark May Day. A large demonstration gathered outside the Tunisian General Federation of Labour (UGTT) headquarters before marching through the capital city. Another demonstration was called by the recently-established Union of Tunisian Labour (UTT). Rising levels of unemployment are fuelling workers’ anger. On 30 April hundreds of unemployed protesters from…
One year ago in Tunisia workers were playing a vital role in the protests sweeping the country against the Ben Ali regime. “The trade unions’ role is one of the most striking aspects of the December protests”, wrote the Tunisia expert Christopher Alexander in the magazine Foreign Policy. On the 7th January thousands of lawyers…
A national strike by Social Security workers took place in Tunisia on December 8th, with workers from the National Medical Care, Retirement and Social Security funds taking part. The workers were demanding that the government covers their social security provision, a benefit they enjoyed prior to 1990. The striking workers held sit-ins at government offices…
