Algeria - Intimidation and dismissals at a Sheraton hotel (2012)

The Sheraton Club des Pins in Algiers fiercely opposed the formation of a trade union. In June, a petition signed by nearly 300 workers for the creation of an organisation affiliated to the Union générale des travailleurs algériens (UGTA) national centre met with no response from the employer. On 13 September, two days before the founding general assembly was due to take place, three delegates were dismissed. On the 15^th, the two other members of the trade union committee were also given the sack. Furthermore, the company took the five activists to court. Exasperated by management’s attitude, virtually the entire staff joined in protest actions and a strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike . Instead of negotiating a solution to the dispute, management set about a veritable purge of the staff. While some workers agreed to sign a statement saying they would abstain from striking many others learnt when they were called to a meeting by management that they would face financial penalties or be sacked. Since then, despite the steadfastness of hundreds of unfairly dismissed workers and the numerous messages sent by the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations (IUF) management continued to refuse to negotiate with the workers and their representatives.