Workers presented their demands – including an annual bonus based on individual productivity and a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) for tramway workers – to the ministry of transport on 7 July.
The ITF-affiliate Fédération Nationale des Travailleurs des Transports (FNTT/UGTA), which organises the tramway workers, told the ITF that the situation was complicated, particularly since the French management (RATP) of the Algerian tramway company (Cetram), in the face of losses incurred during the strike, had failed to have a dialogue with its workers. It claims Cetram has dismissed several union leaders while trying to find a ‘yellow’ (company-run) union to deal with, and has refused the demand of 250 workers to establish their own, independent, trade union to serve their interests.
The workers are calling for the dismissal of the Cetram management and the French general manager of Cetram’s headquarters in Algeria.
The TFU has also filed its grievances with the Fédération Nationale des Travailleurs des Transports (FNTT/UGTA), to which it is affiliated.
Bilal Malkawi, ITF Arab World regional secretary, said: “Cetram’s and their French partners RATP’s treatment of workers and unions is a violation of trade union rights.
“This is a multinational company that operates in Algeria, without respecting workers’ rights. Workers have the right to negotiate their own collective bargaining agreement (CBA), and the days where companies could behave in such a way in a country like Algeria are now long gone. The workers will definitely win, and the company should start negotiating a CBA now, and reinstate all the dismissed employees."
Louisa Hanoune, the head of Algeria’s workers’ party, condemned the dismissal of the union activists and said the company’s general manager was against the union.
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