Tunisia’s powerful UGTT urges release of jailed union officials
Tunis, May 1 (EFE).- Tunisia’s influential General Labour Union (UGTT) demanded on Labor Day on Monday the release of senior union officials arrested in recent months.
The union said that the growing government crackdown would not stop them from defending workers’ rights.
“We will not keep quiet in the face of threats and catastrophes awaiting the country,” UGTT head Noureddine Taboubi during a Labor Day speech.
Taboubi accused the Tunisian authorities of “tarnishing the country’s image” after preventing a delegation from the International Trade Union Confederation from entering the country in March and expelling its general secretary, Esther Lynch, after taking part in a union demonstration.
The UGTT, which claims to have a million members and played a key role in the 2011 uprising that ousted dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, backed president Kais Saied’s parliament suspension in 2021.
However, the union has distanced itself from Saied’s policies after he approved a new constitution after a referendum in July despite a 70% abstention. EFE
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