The Solidarity Center works with labor unions in Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria to strengthen their capacity to respond to workers' needs and promote their rights in the Arab Maghreb.
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A woman and her children who live in the slums of Agadir near a cannery warily watch investigators. |
Morocco has a strong history of trade unionism. Today, there are five main labor federations, three of which are members of the ITUC. The Union Marocaine du Travail (UMT) was founded by its current General Secretary, and is the largest and oldest union confederation in Morocco focused on organizing workers in the private sector, representing some 200,000 of Morocco’s 600,000 organized workers. The Confédération Démocratique du Travail (CDT), founded in 1978 after separating from the UMT is the second-largest union in terms of membership, and the most representative in terms of the number of elected worker representatives in the civil service, state owned enterprises, and private enterprises throughout the country. The Union Générale des Travailleurs du Maroc (UGTM), founded in 1963, is affiliated with the Istiqlal political party, and represents workers in a wide range of sectors, including education, textiles, chemicals, electronics, transportation, and agriculture. Following these three in terms of representation are the Islamist Union Nationale du Travail du Maroc (UNTM), affiliated with the Justice and Development Party (PJD) and the socialist Democratic Federation of Labor (FDT) which is the most recently formed of the five, and is affiliated with the Socialist Union of Popular Forces (USFP).
The Solidarity Center’s primary partner in Morocco is the CDT, whose Executive Council operates on a consensus decision-making model and whose local unions operate with a large margin of autonomy in the defense of workers rights in each of Morocco’s territorial sub-divisions. Through its Economic Education for Action Program, the Solidarity Center and CDT’s Agadir branch are working together to strategically engage men and women workers in promoting their labor rights in export industries in the food sector in the country’s south. The program targets mainly, but not exclusively, young workers, who make up the bulk of the workforce and who largely employed on temporary seasonal contracts. This collaborative program is run parallel with corresponding initiatives in Tunisia and Algeria, which together support the education, mobilization, and organizing of workers to represent their interests in their respective industries and throughout the region.
We also with the National Union of Press Workers (SNPM), an important reference union in the Maghreb, to support a regional network of journalists’ unions. To do this, we are using a worker rights approach to training union members in the uses of electronic media and new communication tools to recruit new members, defend the socio-professional rights of journalists in the region, and advance freedom of expression in the region.
Education for Change: Sowing the Seeds of Solidarity. Solidarity Center hosts a seven-member delegation of women union educators from Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, and Yemen.
Solidarity Center Publications
- Gender Programming Manual (2006). This 70-page handbook incorporates staff insights and experiences into checklists and tools needed to develop programs that redress gender inequity in the workplace, promote leadership roles for women, and move closer to achieving full worker rights.
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