February 29, 2012—Continuing a pattern of blatant worker and human rights abuse, the Algerian government arrested dozens of unionized contract teachers affiliated with the Syndicat National Autonome des Personnels de l'Administration Publique (SNAPAP, the national independent union of public-sector workers) in three incidents while the teachers were exercising their right to peaceful protest.
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Malika Fallil, president of SNAPAP’s National Workers’ Committee on Precarious and Pre-employment, and Tahar Belabes, president of SNAPAP’s National Committee for the Defense of Unemployed Workers, were arrested during a February 22 sit-in before the Palais des Expositions, where the Minister of Labor, Employment, and Social Security, along with a representative of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and other members of the government, were opening a job recruitment fair. Falil and Belabes took advantage of the high-powered officials’ presence to denounce the government’s employment policies, under which more than 40,000 Algerian teachers are contract workers with no guaranteed salary, benefits, or job security. After being taken into custody and interrogated by police, they were released the same day.
On Sunday February 26, police arrested a total of 70 teachers. First, 30 activists from SNAPAP’s National Committee of Contract-to-Hire (pré-emploi et filet social) were arrested for protesting in front of the Ministry of Labor; later that day, 40 members of SNAPAP’s National Committee of Contract Teachers, including its president, Gouasmia Moussa, were arrested while engaged in a sit-in before the Presidential Palace to protest a series of tough measures for teachers being taken by the Minister of National Education. All have since been released.
The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has firmly condemned this attack on legitimate union rights. "It is unacceptable that peaceful trade unionists should be arrested for exercising their legitimate right to protest," said ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow. "We urge the Algerian government to take every action necessary to ensure their immediate release.”
Letter from AFL-CIO International Director Cathy Feingold to Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, October 14, 2011
Algerian Government Shuts Down Union Offices, Blocks Website. On May 12, 2010, the Prefect of Algiers Province, under the Ministry of the Interior, closed the House of Labor—headquarters of a coalition of independent unions representing more than 600,000 health, education, and government workers. The order was given less than two days before unions from Tunisia, Morocco, Mauritania, Egypt, Europe, and the United States were to attend a Maghreb Union Forum. Since then, the union website has been shut down.
Algerian Teachers Suspend Hunger Strike but Not Their Struggle. Members of the Conseil National des Enseignants Contractuels protest a system where long-term contract workers are denied their rights by a system that hires on a “temporary” basis, in some cases for more than 10 years.
