Tunisia’s UGTT Mulls 'Compromise' Ahead of Strike

Workers stage a protest in front of the national union headquarters in Tunis. AP Photo
Workers stage a protest in front of the national union headquarters in Tunis. AP Photo
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Tunisia’s UGTT Mulls 'Compromise' Ahead of Strike

Workers stage a protest in front of the national union headquarters in Tunis. AP Photo
Workers stage a protest in front of the national union headquarters in Tunis. AP Photo

Tunisia's powerful UGTT trade union confederation, locked in a dispute with the government over wage raises, has said it is open to compromise ahead of February strikes -- "but not at any price".

Secretary General Noureddine Taboubi told Agence France Presse that the Tunisian General Labor Union wants to be involved in elections later this year.

The UGTT staged a mass public sector strike last week as talks with the government on social and economic reforms remained deadlocked.

It has since called further strikes for February 20 and 21, demanding bigger public sector wage increases in a country battling soaring unemployment and inflation of 7.5 percent.

"We don't want to strike for the sake of striking," Taboubi said in an interview Monday.

"We have announced another strike in a month, in the hope that we'll find a compromise. But not at any price."

Public sector employees make up around a quarter of Tunisia's workforce.

The UGTT has demanded higher public sector pay rises than those on offer by the government, as well as guarantees protecting some of Tunisia's many publicly owned companies from privatization.

It said some 90 percent of public sector workers had observed the January 17 strike, which caused mayhem in the country's airports, despite calls from President Beji Caid Essebsi for them to stay at their posts.

Taboubi said Monday that negotiations were still in progress, noting there were four weeks left to reach an agreement.

Prime Minister Youssef Chahed has said the state of Tunisia's public finances means it cannot meet the UGTT's demands.

But the UGTT has sharply criticized the government for accepting a 2.4-billion-euro loan from the International Monetary Fund in exchange for pledges to carry out sweeping economic reforms.

Taboubi said it would play a role in this year's presidential and parliamentary elections, pledging to remain "peaceful and civilized".

"I repeat: this has nothing to do with wanting to bring down this government or any other," he said.



Israel Orders Evacuation of Area Designated as Humanitarian Zone in Gaza

 A picture taken in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during Israeli army operations in areas east of Khan Younis city on July 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)
A picture taken in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during Israeli army operations in areas east of Khan Younis city on July 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)
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Israel Orders Evacuation of Area Designated as Humanitarian Zone in Gaza

 A picture taken in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during Israeli army operations in areas east of Khan Younis city on July 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)
A picture taken in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during Israeli army operations in areas east of Khan Younis city on July 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)

Israel’s military ordered the evacuation Saturday of a crowded part of Gaza designated as a humanitarian zone, saying it is planning an operation against Hamas militants in Khan Younis, including parts of Muwasi, a makeshift tent camp where thousands are seeking refuge.

The order comes in response to rocket fire that Israel says originates from the area. It's the second evacuation issued in a week in an area designated for Palestinians fleeing other parts of Gaza. Many Palestinians have been uprooted multiple times in search of safety during Israel's punishing air and ground campaign.

On Monday, after the evacuation order, multiple Israeli airstrikes hit around Khan Younis, killing at least 70 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, citing figures from Nasser Hospital.

The area is part of a 60-square-kilometer (roughly 20-square-mile) “humanitarian zone” to which Israel has been telling Palestinians to flee to throughout the war. Much of the area is blanketed with tent camps that lack sanitation and medical facilities and have limited access to aid, United Nations and humanitarian groups say. About 1.8 million Palestinians are sheltering there, according to Israel's estimates. That's more than half Gaza’s pre-war population of 2.3 million.

The war in Gaza has killed more than 39,100 Palestinians, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. The UN estimated in February that some 17,000 children in the territory are now unaccompanied, and the number is likely to have grown since.

The war began with an assault by Hamas fighters on southern Israel on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took about 250 hostages. About 115 are still in Gaza, about a third of them believed to be dead, according to Israeli authorities.