During a meeting that took place last January, the network of EuroMaghreb trade unions decided to organise a delegation to support and observe the evolution of the social situation in Alger in March 2010. This action was based on the testimony that had been received from independent trade unionists. The aim of the delegation, over and above being an expression of international solidarity, was to collect as many testimonies and as much information as possible on the evolution of the social situation and the attitude of the Algerian authorities to the trade union movements.
A fragmented civil society, increased riots and the revolt of an impoverished population.
Monthly average wages in Algeria are about the equivalent of 120 euros. But the cost of living in Algiers is equivalent to that in Marseilles. Basic food is becoming inaccessibly expensive; it is increasingly difficult to find housing, as there is a lack of housing and the cost of those available too high. The middle classes, if that term can still be used, have been very hard hit by this huge rise in the cost of living that is linked to galloping inflation. The rate of unemployment for the under-25s is almost 40%! Algeria has, however paid back its foreign debts, and the GNP is positive, with the country having over 150 billion dollars-worth of reserves, essentially in foreign bank accounts. The oil reserves (that account for 98% of exports) are also important.
How can this situation best be explained? It is quite obvious that a part of the resources have, for many years, been siphoned off by the minority in office, including the officers in the DRS (the State Security and Intelligence services), the omnipresent political police force, which is the first to benefit. The so-called much-advertised anti-corruption campaign that is supposed to be enforced today in Algeria hides nothing of the de facto situation: corruption is “State-sponsored” at all levels, as one of the people we spoke to put it. It is hardly surprising then, that riots are breaking out with increasing frequency all over the country, whether as the result of a power cut or a lost football match or to protest against the bad state of the roads, the lack of housing etc. These riots are now spreading to some neighbourhoods in Algiers. The only place where there is free expression and discussion are the teachers’ rooms or the rest rooms in high schools or hospitals, for example. Information is controlled; misinformation has become the rule in many newspapers of all kinds. The two main daily independent papers that have their own publishing infrastructure are El Watan (a French-language paper) and El Khabar, (published in Arabic). They regularly testify to the repression that independent unions suffer from. Journalists talk about the heavy social pressure that exists all over the country nowadays. After a long period that was characterised by great lethargy, the demands are increasingly numerous.
Strikes in the education sector
The independent trade unions in the education sector are truly representative of the sector, essentially because they are the only ones to really stand up and fight. In 2003 and 2004 a strike that they organised had an almost 90% following in Algiers and in certain other regions.
In Autumn 2009, on 15the of November to be precise, at the initiative of CNAPEST, the other independent unions came out on strike, and this was largely supported by the education sector.
On 24th February, the independent union CNAPEST, along with another primary school trade union, UNPEF, started a new strike. The authorities broke the strike by manœuvres that demonstrate the means used to increase repression. One week earlier, the SNAPEST, with the support of public declarations launched a strike on their own; this strike was a failure. SNAPEST (which is actually a power-controlled “clone”) did not participate in the one called on the 24th...
On March 9th, the CNAPEST members of the teachers’ union (Independent secondary and technical school teachers’ union) decided to suspend their strike. This strike was massively supported throughout the country, and had lasted for two weeks. The strikers’ demands concerned allowances, management of social funds and working conditions (salaries that are derisory they are so low, annual medical check-ups for teachers...).
The inter trade-union committee of independent unions in the education sector now appears to be divided, and the manœuvres by the union clones as well as the repressive machinery put in place by the ruling powers have weakened the movement.
Strike in the health sector
On 23rd November 2009, the SNPSP and the SNPSSP called for strike action, and the health sector professional came out on strike, and only maintained a minimum service that they had organised. The strike was declared unlimited on 21st December. The demands concern the re-evaluation of pay scales, allowances and staff housing.
In the health sector, just as in education, the law courts in Algiers declared the strike illegal. A campaign of defamation was orchestrated by the authorities to discredit the movement. There was a treat to withdraw the union’s accreditation and remove strikers from the register as well as holding back their salaries. On February 10th 2010 a sit-in in front of the presidential palace was violently attacked by the police, and the mobile forces; women were violently shoved around, according to El Watan on the 11th of March. When this report went to press, the health professionals are still on strike: it is the longest strike in the history of the Algerian social movements. In this case too, there are reports on the pressure that is being brought to bear, and the many threats made by the authorities to call off the strike.
Women’s rights: an evaluation by the Women’s committee of the SNAPAP
The main struggles that women are facing are violence and the various forms of harassment that women suffer from at work. There is no law to protect them from these aggressions! Those who have the courage to file a complaint are generally convicted by the courts for defamation, sometimes with a suspended prison sentence. They tend to lose their job and have little hope of finding a new one. The Committee has just developed a questionnaire on harassment in the workplace, and they intend to promote it extensively in the course of a campaign to raise awareness on the subject. The representative of the Committee states that the situation is even worse in the multinational companies. There are even more cases of administrative and sexual harassment there. Meryem Medhi, who has been on hunger strike for 79 days (since 9th December 2009) contributed to publicising the working conditions in these firms. She was fired from British Gas due to her trade union activities (cf further information lower in the text). Although the law states that there should be gender balance, this is not implemented: in the Senate, for example, only 4 out of 48 Senators are women; in the Parliament, only 25% are women, and in local government, 13%. Yet 54% of the electorate are women.
Modern slavery and the repression of all protests
Whereas trade union rights and social movements are being broken in the public sector, the situation is far more catastrophic still for those who are trying to demand a minimum of rights in the subsidiaries of the multinational companies that are present in the south of Algeria, which is where the oil and gas fields lie. The workers there in the multinationals have no real rights. This leads to extended working hours (12 hours per day rather than 8, for example, as well as overtime rarely being paid). They are also subjected to disrespectful behaviour and insults. Given this situation, the workers in several companies decided to stand up for their rights. The struggle of two of them has been given extensive press coverage since 2009, including outside Algeria (Meryam Medhi and Yassine Zaïd), many others have also stood up for their rights and have created a trade union chapter of UGTA (although it is not possible to create an independent union in the private sector). They all lost their jobs. Given these attacks on union rights and more widely on workers’ rights, a national committee to defend workers’ rights will be set up, affiliated to SNAPAP, in order to defend and support workers whose conditions in multinationals in the south of Algeria are so difficult.