Algeria: 32 unions launch strike to protest draft laws 'censoring' unions

In Algeria, more than thirty independent trade unions have launched a nationwide strike to protest two controversial government bills that critics say aim to "censor strikes and muzzle unions".

On Monday, thirty-two Algerian independent trade unions, from teachers to Imams, carried out their threat and paralysed the key sectors in the country, as the Algerian parliament set to vote on a government proposal that may control further strikes and protests in the country.

"We had warned the government of the consequences of "passing by force," so we had to launch a strike and protest vigils. (...) Strikes and protests are what we have left," Elias Murabet, head of the Syndicate of Public Health Practitioners, told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, The New Arab's Arabic-language sister publication. 

Murabet, along with other workers, argues that withdrawing the controversial bills is the only way to end the stalemate.

In January, the Algerian government presented a draft law that sought to prohibit the launch of any labour strike before exhausting the means of dialogue, reconciliation and arbitration.

The bill also states that unions will be required to give at least a five-day notice to the authorities before launching any strike.

The second controversial bill imposes strict requirements for allowing the establishment of unions and allows authorities to dissolve unions, through judicial means, in the event that they engage in an activity of a political nature.

Despite the criticism, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune continues to strongly support the governmental drafts.  

"Trade union work is a constitutional right, and we are in the stage of rearranging the house, so we decided on a new law that regulates trade union work to reduce union chaos. The right to strike is also guaranteed, but that must be regulated," Tebboune said in an interview with Algeria state media last Friday.

Tebboune also argued that the large number of unions present in the country is "illogical" and should be restricted.

The Algerian parliament is set to discuss the two bills over three days after holding discussions with both union members and officials.

"Members of parliament listened to both the Minister of Labor and Employment and representatives of unions. Now we have the data that allow us to discuss the laws without any 'politicisation' of the file," Zuhair Nasseri, an MP representing the majority party National Liberation Front (same party as the president), said to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.