Tunisia Government, Labor Union Fail to Agree on Wages

Tunisian activist speaks in front of anti-government protesters in Tunis, Tunisia, in this picture taken from social media. (File Photo: Reuters)
Tunisian activist speaks in front of anti-government protesters in Tunis, Tunisia, in this picture taken from social media. (File Photo: Reuters)
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Tunisia Government, Labor Union Fail to Agree on Wages

Tunisian activist speaks in front of anti-government protesters in Tunis, Tunisia, in this picture taken from social media. (File Photo: Reuters)
Tunisian activist speaks in front of anti-government protesters in Tunis, Tunisia, in this picture taken from social media. (File Photo: Reuters)

A scheduled strike for Thursday is likely to go ahead after Tunisia’s government and the Tunisian General Labor Union (UGTT) failed to reach a deal on raising the wages of civil servants, union and government officials said.

UGTT official Hafedh Hfaidh reported no progress on the negotiations with the government, saying the union will go on strike Thursday.

A government source told Reuters the negotiations had failed despite a new proposal from the government, without providing any details.

The government held negotiations with the UGGT hoping to end the strike, as Minister of Social Development Mohammed al-Traboulsi said he was optimistic about the talks. However, UGTT Sec-Gen Noureddine Taboubi refused the government’s proposal and confirmed that the Union is preparing for Thursday’s strike.

Taboubi denied local media reports about calling the strike off, saying that such rumors aim to create confusion and turmoil. He didn’t rule out the possibility of calling for a general strike in all sectors in case the government did not respond to their requests.

Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi warned against the strike’s negative impact.

Speaking on the 8th anniversary of the revolution, Essebsi wished to avoid the strike "at all costs … because its negative consequences will be heavier than the benefits that can be obtained in case all demands are met.”

Financial expert Ezzeddine Seaidan estimated financial losses of no less than $100 million if the strike was held. These include public sector losses, saying Thursday's move will have dire consequences on the private sector, aside from its ramifications on the transportation sector.

The expert also warned that the strike will affect foreign investments, interest rates, and even foreign loans.

In other news, two rights groups have filed a lawsuit accusing the Tunisian President of abuse of power after he pardoned a jailed party official, Borhane Bsaies.

This prompted NGOs al-Bawsala and I-Watch to lodge a joint formal complaint, saying the President’s pardon was motivated by “partisan interests that run contrary to... the values of justice, equity and good governance, in a Tunisia that is riddled with corruption.”

Last October, Bsaies was sentenced to two years in prison after being found guilty of taking improper payments during the rule of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

But in November, Bsaeis, who is close to Essebsi's son and Nidaa Tounes leader Hafedh Caid Essebsi, was pardoned by the President.



Blinken Calls for Push to Get Gaza Truce Deal over ‘Finish Line’

 Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip, as seen from Sderot, southern Israel, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP)
Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip, as seen from Sderot, southern Israel, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP)
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Blinken Calls for Push to Get Gaza Truce Deal over ‘Finish Line’

 Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip, as seen from Sderot, southern Israel, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP)
Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip, as seen from Sderot, southern Israel, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on Monday for a final push for a Gaza ceasefire before President Joe Biden leaves office, after a Hamas official told Reuters the group had cleared a list of 34 hostages as first to go free under a truce.

"We very much want to bring this over the finish line in the next two weeks, the time we have remaining," Blinken told a news conference in South Korea, when asked whether a ceasefire deal was close.

Israel has sent a team of mid-ranking officials to Qatar for talks brokered by Qatari and Egyptian mediators. Some Arabic media reports said David Barnea, the head of Mossad, who has been leading negotiations, was expected to join them. The Israeli prime minister's office did not comment.

It remains unclear how close the two sides remain, with some signs of movement but little indication of a shift in some of the key demands that have so far blocked any truce for more than a year.

US President-elect Donald Trump has said there would be "hell to pay" in the Middle East if hostages held by Hamas were not freed before his inauguration on Jan. 20, now viewed in the region as an unofficial deadline for a truce deal.

According to Gaza health officials, nearly 46,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's assault on Gaza. The assault was launched after Hamas fighters stormed Israeli territory in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages, by Israeli tallies.

More than 100 hostages are still believed to be held in Gaza, and Hamas says it will not free them without an agreement that ends the war with Israeli withdrawal. Israel says it will not halt its assault until Hamas is dismantled as a military and governing power and all hostages go free.

A Hamas official told Reuters the group had cleared a list submitted by Israel of 34 hostages who could be freed in the initial phase of a truce. The list provided by the official included female soldiers, plus elderly, female and minor-aged civilians.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said the list had been given by Israel to Qatari mediators as far back as July, and Israel had so far received no confirmation or comment from Hamas about whether the hostages on it were alive.

For Michael Levy, whose brother Or was one of the 34 names on the list, there was little comfort.

"The way I see this list is the way I saw all the recent rumors about an upcoming deal," he told Reuters. "For me, as long as my brother is not here and the hostages are not here in Israel, it's just a rumor."

BABY DIES OF COLD

Israeli forces, which have intensified their operations in recent weeks, continued bombardments across the enclave, killing at least 48 people and wounding 75 over the past 24 hours, according to the Gaza health ministry.

Harsh winter weather continued to exact a toll on the hundreds of thousands displaced into makeshift shelters, with officials saying a 35-day-old baby had died of exposure, at least the eighth victim of the cold in the past two weeks.

Officials from Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip said an Israeli airstrike at a school compound sheltering displaced families had wounded at least 40 people.

While Israel's military says Hamas has largely been destroyed as an organized military force, its fighters continue to hold out in the rubble of Gaza, which has been largely reduced to wasteland by the months of bombardment.

On Monday, two Israeli soldiers were severely wounded in northern Gaza, and three rockets were fired from Gaza, one of which hit a building in the nearby Israeli city of Sderot without casing casualties, Israeli police said.

Separately, the World Food Program said Israeli forces had opened fire on one of its convoys as the vehicles moved from central Gaza to Gaza City in the north. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, a separate Palestinian territory where violence has also surged since the start of the Gaza war, gunmen killed three Israelis and wounded several others when they opened fire on a car and bus near the Israeli settlement of Kedumim.