Imams in Algeria officially no longer have the right to go on strike. They appear on the very long list of personnel working in “the areas of defense and national security, as well as strategic and sensitive sectors in terms of sovereignty or maintenance of essential services of vital interest to the nation”, listed in the decree of the Algerian Prime Minister, Aïmene Benabderrahmane, published on October 17 in the Official Journal.
Imams, who are civil servants, are in the same boat as magistrates, civil servants appointed by decree or stationed abroad, security service and civil protection personnel, communications service agents, customs officers, prison administration officers and staff of establishments comprising “sensitive and strategic installations”.
Another decree published the same day imposes practically in all sectors of activity in Algeria a compulsory minimum service which “cannot be less than 30% of the total number of workers affected by the strike”.
The two texts are in fact only an implementation of two laws promulgated on April 25 and June 21 on “the exercise of the right to organize” and “the exercise of the right to strike” which the autonomous unions had opposed , in vain, when they were examined in February by Parliament. Around thirty of these organizations then launched a day of protest against texts deemed “liberticidal” which aim, according to Lyes Merabet, president of the National Union of Public Health Practitioners (SNPSP), to “call into question the right to union exercise and lock in the field of social struggles”.
Eliminate many unions
To everyone’s surprise, even the General Union of Algerian Workers (UGTA), although described as a “power union”, criticized the two bills in a press release dated January 22. Its secretary general, Salim Labatcha, stressed that they were not in line with the “international conventions that Algeria has ratified”. “Certain articles of the two bills are also not consistent with the Algerian Constitution, with regard to civil and political rights,” he clarified.
Two months later, on the eve of the examination of the texts by Parliament, Mr. Labatcha announced his resignation from the trade union center for “health reasons”. An explanation considered unconvincing by other unionists who saw it above all as a sign of a determination by the authorities to caporalize union activity.
Officially, according to the Minister of Labor, the new decrees will “strengthen the role of trade union organizations in the defense of rights and achieve social justice”. But the Confederation of Autonomous Trade Unions (CSA) above all noted the implementation of “incapacitating and prohibitive conditions imposed on the right to strike which is guaranteed by law”.
In a country with a low union density rate, the requirement for staff representation of at least 25%, imposed in the new legislative system, is likely to eliminate many unions. Which is apparently the goal. President Abdelmadjid Tebboune estimated, at the end of February, that it was “illogical” to have “thirty-four unions in a single sector…”.
Authoritarian takeover of the regime
The head of state also brushed aside denunciations of restrictions on the right to strike: “It is inconceivable to wake up in the morning to a text message saying that workers are on strike. The right to strike is governed by law and must be considered the ultimate and final solution. There are procedures to follow and that is what we want to put in place today. » Other provisions weaken unions in the face of the executive, such as limiting the mandates of union leaders or prohibiting them from having political commitments.
A petition signed by academics and journalists denounced texts which make “legally impossible the exercise of the right to strike and the free exercise of the right to organize which have already been largely hampered by the practice of public authorities and employers for several years “.
These restrictions on union activity are part of a global approach to authoritarian takeover led by a regime strongly shaken by Hirak, the peaceful protest movement of 2019-2020 which demanded real political change. Hirak activists are the subject of sustained repression, social organizations such as the Rassemblement actions jeunesse (RAJ) and the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights (LADDH) have been dissolved, journalists are imprisoned and pressures are exerted on political parties.
