2 February, 2023In the morning of 1 February, Anis Kaabi, general secretary of Tunisia’s Highway workers union, was arrested after striking for better working conditions.
The Tunisian General Labor Union (UGTT) says that the strike was organized according to the provisions of the Labour Code and warns against targeting union rights and freedoms.
UGTT condemns the arrest as it undermines union action, violates union rights and contravenes international conventions ratified by Tunisia, as well as the provisions of the Tunisian Constitution on union freedom and the right to strike.
The space for trade union rights in Tunisia is rapidly shrinking, and the union says that the arrest “is a continuation of what the union has been subjected to for some time, attempts to distort and mobilize against it."
“Anis Kaabi must be released immediately, and we call for an end to the attacks on public and personal freedoms, namely the right to organize and freedom of assembly,”
says IndustriALL general secretary Atle Høie.
The UGTT is calling on its members in all sectors to be ready to defend union rights, the right to strike, as well as all public and personal freedoms.