Nov 8, 2013
Public Services International, together with the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations (IUF), the Comité International de Soutien au Syndicalisme Autonome Algérien/CISA (International Support Committee for Autonomous Algerian Trade Unions), the Solidarity Center and the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN), are calling for international action in solidarity with Algerian trade union SNAPAP, including the reinstatement of SNAPAP President Rachid Malaoui.
All unions and international organizations defending human rights are called upon to support SNAPAP by sending letters to the President of the Republic of Algeria, demanding that Rachid Malaoui be reinstated as soon as possible and that the right to exercise his union mandate be guaranteed in accordance with Algerian law and Algeria’s international commitments.
In May 2013, Rachid Malaoui was removed from his post at the University of Continuous Education while he was about to take part in the International Labor Conference, organised by the International Labor Organization (ILO), last June, in Geneva. This type of harassment clearly demonstrates a desire to punish Rachid Malaoui because of his trade union activities and his commitment to defending human rights, in violation of Article 53 of Algerian Law No. 90-14 of 2 June 1990, which states that “no union delegate may be dismissed or transferred by his employer, nor can any disciplinary action be undertaken as a result of his/her union activities”. In June and July 2013, both during and after the ILO’s International Labor Conference, several informal negotiations took place with the Ministry of Labor and other state institutions, during the course of which Rachid Malaoui was advised of the possibility of his eventual re-integration. Unfortunately, to this date, no concrete steps have been taken and all the attempts to have his case heard remain unanswered.
Take action: Sign an online letter to Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika urging him to reinstate Malaoui and commit the government to engaging in dialogue with SNAPAP.
More information, including a fact sheeet and protest letters from PSI, ITUC and the AFL-CIO, is available here.
Sep 27, 2013
Morocco union leader Touriya Lahrech will join women unionists at a gender equality conference in Casablanca. Credit Tula Connell/Solidarity Center
Nearly two dozen women trade unionists from Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia and Palestine are set to meet next week for a unique skills-building and strategy conference in Casablanca, Morocco.
The Solidarity Center-sponsored Women’s Regional Advocacy Conference for the Middle East and North Africa region will bring together women leaders from seven union bodies to hone concrete skills, such as communications outreach and message development, and to support union-building initiatives that women leaders have identified as most important. Women representing the gamut of workers—from public sector employees to those toiling on farms—will share and learn strategies for strengthening women’s voices in their unions, their workplaces and in society.
The Sept. 30–Oct 1 conference continues the Solidarity Center’s series of trainings with union partners around the world. The Solidarity Center is committed to helping train women activists to become more effective advocates for gender equality at the bargaining table and within union structures.
In July, the Solidarity Center hosted more than 100 labor and community activists from 20 countries for the two-day conference, “Women’s Empowerment, Gender Equality and Labor Rights: Transforming the Terrain.” Touriya Lahrech was among those taking part, and she will welcome participants to the Casablanca conference. Lahrech is coordinator of the Women’s Department at the Confederation Democratique du Travail in Morocco.
Participating union bodies include: the Egyptian Democratic Labor Congress (EDLC); the Egyptian Federation of Independent Trade Unions (EFITU); the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Jordan (FITU); the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU); Algeria’s SNAPAP; and the Union Générale Tunisienne de Travail (UGTT).
Aug 24, 2012
Worker and human rights activist Abdelkader Kherba has been imprisoned after he filmed a citizens’ protest brought on by chronic water cuts affecting the inland town of Ksar El Boukhari in Algeria.
Kherba was detained August 22. Initial attempts made by his family to locate him at the local police station were met with denials by authorities. However, his family has since learned that Kherba was transferred to the town prison after appearing before magistrates on charges of insulting the state’s institutions and officials. He is due to stand trial on August 28, according to the independent union of public administration workers, SNAPAP, a Solidarity Center partner.
Kherba is a founding member of SNAPAP’s Committee of Unemployed Workers, which has been calling on the Algerian government to resolve problems caused by extremely high levels of chronic unemployment in the country— a situation which acutely affects younger workers.
A trade union activist, Kherba supported a sit-in protest of striking Justice Ministry workers last April, an action for which he was convicted for inciting protest, fined and given a suspended 1-year jail sentence. After returning home for the Muslim festival of Eid-al-Fitr, which follows the month-long Ramadan fast, Kherba was outraged by the seemingly indifferent manner in which authorities disrupted the water supply—so vital when Ramadan falls during the hot summer months and people do not consume food or water during the daylight hours.
“We condemn this illegitimate use of the courts against human and worker rights activists and call upon the Algerian government to immediately release Abdelkader Kherba,” said SNAPAP President Rachid Malaoui. “SNAPAP considers these drastic and punitive legal measures taken by the Algerian government to be a form of harassment against activists engaged in the legitimate exercise of their fundamental human and worker rights and are deliberately designed to suppress dissent and eliminate all possibility of free speech and democratic participation.”
SNAPAP calls upon the international community for support in defending human and workers’ rights in Algeria by actively denouncing the arrest of Abdelkader Kherba.
