Tackling the social crisis in post-election Algeria

News

The Algerian presidential election, set for 17 April, appears to have been rigged in favour of the ruling president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, according to local activists and trade unionists.

Bouteflika is seeking a fourth term in office despite his poor health, which is paralysing the country’s institutions.

The head of state’s decision to run again has led to protests on an unprecedented scale, headed by the "Barakat" (Enough!) movement and other civil society groups, including the independent trade unions trying to mobilise workers despite the risks they face.

According to Rachid Malaoui, president of the public sector union Syndicat National Autonome des Personnels de l’Administration Publique (SNAPAP):

"What is at stake is not the result of the election, which is a farce. The powers that be, who are pulling the strings in this election, must accept a peaceful and democratic change. We are mobilising on the ground to voice the people’s discontent and to stress the urgent need for a truly long-term plan."

Despite the lifting of the 19-year-long state of emergency in 2011, under popular pressure following the "Arab Spring", corruption and the restrictions on independent trade unions’ freedom of association and assembly are worse, as confirmed by the latest critical report released by the European Union, as well as the regular reports from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

Suspension of pay, dismissal, arrest... independent trade union representatives face huge risks.

 

Repression is not deterring mobilisation

On 30 March, the Confédération Générale Autonome des Travailleurs en Algérie (CGATA) held its second general meeting in a spirit of activism and with a strong presence of women and young people.

Despite being established over a year ago, the CGATA, which hopes to bring together Algeria’s independent trade union organisations and extend their reach within the private sector, has still not been recognised by the authorities.

This blocking strategy is not unusual in Algeria. "Seventeen independent trade unions, including those representing higher education, metro, tram, sanitation, road maintenance and energy workers, have filed for recognition with the Labour Ministry.

"The refusal to respond to these requests is an abuse of power, an attack on freedom of association, which is a right guaranteed by the constitution and the international conventions signed in this respect," denounced the SNAPAP in an interview with Equal Times.

The SNAPAP, which spearheaded the new national confederation, has filed a complaint with the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

"The government uses its influence over the judiciary and virtually all strikes are declared illegal," explains Kadour Chouicha of the independent union of higher education teachers, which is among those that have not been recognised. "Forming an independent union is strictly prohibited in sectors deemed to be strategic and anyone daring to denounce an injustice is no sooner sanctioned or even dismissed."

"Women are targeted or marginalised, as was the case with the women trade unionists at the Justice Ministry, who were suspended in April 2012 after taking strike action," denounces Yamina Meghraoui, president of the SNAPAP women’s committee.

 

The word ’union’ banned from companies

An employee of a cigarette packaging company with foreign capital, who asked to remain anonymous, confirmed these trade union rights violations in an interview with Equal Times: "The very mention of the word ’union’ is virtually prohibited at the company. There is a great deal of fear and wariness among the 800 or so workers at the site. The management says to the workers, ’If you have a problem, come and talk to us about it’. But anyone doing so is labelled a ’troublemaker’, faces harassment and is pushed to leave."

Workers at the Oggaz cement plant in Mascara, operated by the French group Lafarge, have been on a hunger strike for over a month. Lafarge has cut 270 jobs in five years, despite the continual growth in output at the site over the same period.

A group of independent trade unionists affiliated to SNAPAP and human rights activists are holding a solidarity sit-in in front of Lafarge’s headquarters to denounce the harassment and exploitation suffered by the French group’s employees, forced to take on an ever-heavier workload and duped by unfulfilled promises that they will be given a share in the profits in the form of bonuses.

The south of the country, a gas and oil producing region where major multinationals are based, "is a veritable rights-free zone", denounces the independent trade union leader and human rights activist Yacine Zaïd.

Fired by the French agribusiness multinational Eurest for trying to set up an independent union in 2006, Yacine Zaïd, who has been arrested several times, points the finger at the Algerian subcontractors that supply the multinationals with labour, "with the complicity of the state and the state-controlled trade union centre, Union Générale des Travailleurs Algériens (UGTA)".

Unemployment is endemic and the informal economy is growing out of all proportion in Algeria, where the under thirties account for 70 per cent of the population.

For the CGATA, the mechanisms meant to bring down youth employment (pre-employment contracts, abuse of fixed-term contracts, etc.) are doing nothing, in fact, but making jobs even more precarious. "There is no work and no future for the young, whether they are qualified or not, especially in the south, where the injustices are immense," underline members of the Coordination Nationale de Défense des Droits des Chômeurs (CNDDC), an organisation defending the rights of the unemployed.

"The government bought social peace by drawing on its oil revenues and increasing the public deficit to contain the mass protests of 2011. But it is a completely artificial scheme," says Rachid Malaoui.

For the president of the SNAPAP, "The so-called social dialogue that the government boasts of is a complete farce. In the same way as we managed to secure wage increases in 2008 thanks to strike action, the only way to make things happen is by mobilising on the ground."

This article has been translated from French.