Rabat - A few days after the Moroccan trade unions took to the streets in the “March of Anger” against the Government’s social policies, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) urged Benkirane to “learn from the trade union mobilization.”
Echoing the last peaceful demonstration led by the Moroccan Labor Union (UMT), the Democratic Federation of Labor (FDT), and the Democratic Confederation of Labor (CDT) on Sunday in Casablanca, the ITUC urged the government to the workers' message.
The ITUC based in Brussels issued a press release on Thursday, April 10 criticizing the ruling party’s policies that “ignore the trade unions’ demands,” saying that the policies of the Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD) “are continuing to fuel social discontent, stemming primarily from the successive rises in basic commodity prices, as well as the growing trade union rights violations.”
The Moroccan trade union movement displayed banners during the peaceful march calling for higher salaries, the preservation of purchasing power, the increase of minimum wage and its extension to encompass the workers of agricultural sector, the revaluation of pensions, the extension of social coverage, the revision and reactivation of the Labor Code and the protection of trade union rights.
Before announcing the march of anger, the three Moroccan main trade unions, UMT, FDT and CDT had sent a joint memorandum to the government, yet the latter did not pay it any heed.
Denouncing the government’s ”lack of action”, EL-Miloudi El-Moukharik, Secretary General of the UMT said that the government “finally contacted the trade union organizations in the immediate run-up to the trade union mobilization on April 6, but with a letter that was more like a summoning than an invitation to engage in genuine social dialogue,” according to the press release.
Sharan Burrow, general secretary of the ITUC called on the head of the government, Abdelilah Benkirane to learn from the trade union mobilization.
"Like in too many other countries around the world, the government must take urgent heed of the consequences arising from antisocial economic policies that increase poverty, unemployment and the marginalization of the most vulnerable and open a sincere social dialogue that respects workers' fundamental rights, in the interest of all," Burrow said.
Edited by Saba Naseem