Tuesday, January 18, the direction of the UGTT asks three ministers, stamped with the union label, leaving the government. It was formed the day before. The three men were to play the role of ministers "openness". By this gesture, the union insists his desire to remain involved in the democratic process that has started in the street, Tunisia."The composition of the [government] is not in harmony with the aspirations and expectations of workers to meet (...) past practices and to respect the balance given the presence of massive figures of the old regime and representatives of the RCD party ... "said on Tuesday, the secretary general Abdessalem Jerad.
The union leadership also denounced "the marginalization of the role of UGTT in that transitional government." It is true that the union has not always been kept out of the country's political history and its governments. Often seen as close to power, the mainstay of the Tunisian society, as head of social movements for years, hunted, UGTT - which claims 517,000 adherents - is an atypical organization in the international labor movement.
"This is our story," says Habib Briki, deputy secretary general of the UGTT we originally played a political role. In 1957, Habib Bourguiba [father of independence] has a government made up of 50 % of party members and 50% of the UGTT. The social and economic aspects of the programs were made by the union.
"From the beginning of the Republic of Tunisia, following independence in 1956, UGTT Destourian and the Socialist Party, succeeded by the Democratic Constitutional Rally (RCD) - the two pillars mesh the country - were sometimes closely associated, often in opposition. Principals, secretaries-general have been alternately very close to the regime or jailed or forced into exile.
But the union has lost a lot of prestige acquired in the 1970s. Veyrier Yves, confederal secretary of the French organization, the Workers Force, remembers the 21st Congress of the UGTT which he attended in December 2006 in Monastir, a coastal town in northern Tunisia. "The police encircled the room where three trends clashed.
In fact, says this specialist in international issues, the government wanted to prevent one of them from entering the convention and it took after the clashes, that management is negotiating with the government. "A summary was finally found and the representative of the League of Human Rights of Tunisia, pursued by the regime of Ben Ali, has even reached at the conference, remembers Yves Veyrier.
At the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), which includes almost all unions worldwide, including the UGTT, we remain cautious. "The UGTT is a single trade union which had to exist, make concessions, accept the framework imposed by the regime," said a permanent CSI. "Some of the employees, young people might ask, like what happens at the political level, a change in the leadership of the union or the end of the single trade union," he says.
"Today, trusts leader Habib Briki, the story resembles that of 1957: the revolt of the people has been supported by the UGTT, which held general meetings in cities. The general strike that we conducted January 14 in the Tunis area has been decisive for the departure of Ben Ali. " The union, scorer of Tunisia, will not be outside the "jasmine revolution".
Remi Barroux
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