Middle East

The Arab Spring affected almost every country in the region, although in different ways. A common factor has been the limitations to freedom of association freedom of association The right to form and join the trade union of one’s choosing as well as the right of unions to operate freely and carry out their activities without undue interference. See Guide to the ITUC international trade union rights framework , and the gap between practices on the one hand, and national laws and ratified ILO International Labour Organization A tripartite United Nations (UN) agency established in 1919 to promote working and living conditions. The main international body charged with developing and overseeing international labour standards. See tripartism, ITUC Guide to international trade union rights conventions on the other. As a consequence of these limitations, both the right to bargain collectively and the right to strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a (...)

The Arab Spring affected almost every country in the region, although in different ways.

A common factor has been the limitations to freedom of association freedom of association The right to form and join the trade union of one’s choosing as well as the right of unions to operate freely and carry out their activities without undue interference.

See Guide to the ITUC international trade union rights framework , and the gap between practices on the one hand, and national laws and ratified ILO International Labour Organization A tripartite United Nations (UN) agency established in 1919 to promote working and living conditions. The main international body charged with developing and overseeing international labour standards.

See tripartism, ITUC Guide to international trade union rights conventions on the other. As a consequence of these limitations, both the right to bargain collectively and the right to 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 are usually severely restricted in the region. In the countries where collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
is allowed, the right is often limited, or the thresholds for bargaining are high. In Lebanon, all collective agreements must be ratified by two-thirds of the union members at a general assembly. In Syria, the right to collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
is recognised in the 2010 Labour Code, however the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour has vast powers to object to and refuse the registration of concluded collective agreements.

Public sector workers are barred from forming and joining unions in Kuwait, and government employees do not enjoy freedom of association freedom of association The right to form and join the trade union of one’s choosing as well as the right of unions to operate freely and carry out their activities without undue interference.

See Guide to the ITUC international trade union rights framework in Lebanon, Oman and Qatar. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates have prohibited freedom of association freedom of association The right to form and join the trade union of one’s choosing as well as the right of unions to operate freely and carry out their activities without undue interference.

See Guide to the ITUC international trade union rights framework and the formation of trade unions. They allow only non-trade union representation through workers’ committees. Iraqi workers in the public sector are forbidden from forming unions not formally sanctioned and controlled by the state, a regulation remaining from the Saddam Hussein era. A long overdue draft labour law, while unsatisfactory, has still not been passed.

Circumventing or violating strikes took different forms, including suppressing and arresting trade union leaders and those participating in strikes. In Jordan, the labour minister refers strikes to a committee to try to force settlements only hours before they occur and without the consent of the concerned trade union in an endeavour to foil the strikes.

Despite this, data from October stated that Jordan had witnessed an unprecedented 607 labour-related protests and work stoppages over the first nine months of 2011. Kuwait also saw a wave of strikes and industrial action industrial action Any form of action taken by a group of workers, a union or an employer during an industrial dispute to gain concessions from the other party, e.g. a strike, go-slow or an overtime ban, or a lockout on the part of the employer. in the public sector, which employs close to 80 per cent of the 360,000-strong workforce of Kuwaiti nationals. In Oman, thousands of workers came out onto the streets between February and May to demand reform, job creation, an end to corruption and the resignation of some high-ranking officials perceived as corrupt.

In Bahrain many thousands took part in demonstrations for democratic reforms. The response from the authorities was brutal and many violations against human and trade union rights were committed following the demonstrations. In Syria, all trade union rights have been abolished in the country.

The Iranian government again relied on “security laws” to suppress trade union activity and any form of dissent. Although Mansour Osanloo was finally released after 6 years in prison during 2011, a large number of union activists, teachers and journalists were sentenced to prison terms on charges of “propaganda against the state”, “disrupting public order”, “spreading lies” and the like.

The Iranian authorities played a cruel and cynical game with Ebrahim Madadi, Vice-President of the Tehran Bus union, who was freed from prison on 30 November (on the eve of the ILO International Labour Organization A tripartite United Nations (UN) agency established in 1919 to promote working and living conditions. The main international body charged with developing and overseeing international labour standards.

See tripartism, ITUC Guide to international trade union rights Regional Conference), only to be re-arrested on 7 December. He had been sentenced to three and a half-year imprisonment in the infamous Evin prison in Tehran in December 2008 on charges of “endangering national security”.

Migrant workers have become a pillar of economic development in the Gulf States, especially as it far outnumbers the total number of native residents. Despite the large size (in some countries, like Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, they make up 70-80% of the entire population), they are excluded from the right to freely associate either totally or partially depending on the unique features, laws, and strength of respective trade union organisations in each country.

In countries where migrant workers are legally allowed to join trade unions, such as Bahrain, employers use intimidation to pre-empt these laws from their content and intimidate workers from joining trade unions out of fear of losing their jobs.

The sponsorship system, in force in many countries, ties migrant workers to their employers, effectively denying them the right to change employer if abuses arise. Employers often also confiscate migrant workers’ passports to make sure they do not leave the country before the end of their contract, even if the terms of the contract are violated.

As domestic workers work primarily in private households, they are mostly invisible, making them a vulnerable workforce. Their rights are often denied and they suffer particularly from exploitation. In June, the International Labour Conference voted in favour of the new ILO International Labour Organization A tripartite United Nations (UN) agency established in 1919 to promote working and living conditions. The main international body charged with developing and overseeing international labour standards.

See tripartism, ITUC Guide to international trade union rights Convention 189 on Decent Work for Domestic Workers.

In Saudi Arabia, women domestic workers are frequently deprived of their freedom and food, face sexual and psychological abuse and are beaten by their employers. In June for example, after being alerted by neighbours, the authorities found a Sri Lankan domestic worker who had been held against her will by her employers for 14 years, without pay.

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Mustapha Tlili, Director of the ITUC Amman Office The Arab Spring of 2011 changed the face of the world, well beyond the confines of the Arab countries. The end of authoritarian rule in Tunisia and Egypt and the recognition recognition The designation by a government agency of a union as the bargaining agent for workers in a given bargaining unit, or acceptance by an employer that its employees can be collectively represented by a union. by the two transitional governments of freedom of association freedom of association The right to form and join the trade union of one’s choosing as well as the right of unions to operate freely and carry out their activities without undue interference. See Guide to the ITUC international trade union rights framework and expression – in law and practice – opened up a much wider space for trade union rights for the first time in 2011. In Libya and Yemen, which have also both seen an end to despotism, there is now much greater (...)

Mustapha Tlili, Director of the ITUC Amman Office

The Arab Spring of 2011 changed the face of the world, well beyond the confines of the Arab countries.

The end of authoritarian rule in Tunisia and Egypt and the recognition recognition The designation by a government agency of a union as the bargaining agent for workers in a given bargaining unit, or acceptance by an employer that its employees can be collectively represented by a union. by the two transitional governments of freedom of association freedom of association The right to form and join the trade union of one’s choosing as well as the right of unions to operate freely and carry out their activities without undue interference.

See Guide to the ITUC international trade union rights framework and expression – in law and practice – opened up a much wider space for trade union rights for the first time in 2011. In Libya and Yemen, which have also both seen an end to despotism, there is now much greater opportunity to create independent trade unions. It will soon be the case, no doubt, in Syria too.

In Morocco, Jordan, Algeria and Mauritania, the governments have chosen to take the initiative themselves, by introducing constitutional reforms, in most cases including more guarantees for the exercise of public freedoms, including trade union rights. In Iraq and the Gulf States the demands of workers to create their own organisations still come up against the obstinate refusal of governments to recognise this right or, in the case of Kuwait and Bahrain, they recognise the right but do not hesitate to oppose any trade union demands, responding with dire threats and the most violent forms of repression.

The Arab Spring has ushered in a new era, more favourable to independent trade unionism but also – as has been seen in Tunisia and Egypt already – full of challenges. Faced with an outpouring of workers’ demands after decades of bad governance, the countries’ new authorities have chosen to turn against the trade unions.

In Egypt, the Military Council, having suspended the activities of the former regime’s official union, has not hesitated to ban strikes by Decree, classifying them as “crimes”. It began by promising to pass a law on trade union rights but a few months later went back on its word by reinstating the official trade union in its former role with all the privileges that went with it. The year ended with a return to the repression of striking workers and the persecution of their leaders, such as the court case against the CTUWS coordinator for statements he made during a debate at the last International Labour Conference. In Tunisia, the new ruling party responded to strikes organised by the UGTT in defence of legitimate demands by launching a smear campaign against the trade union organisation, accusing it of the “premeditated undermining of the national economy and plotting against the government”. Some of the party’s leaders called on the government to deal with the striking workers with the utmost severity.

In Algeria, in response to the renewed outbreak of social protest and the actions led by the autonomous trade unions and the UGTA grass roots organisations, the government stepped up the level of police violence almost systematically during the year. In Kuwait, the government made numerous threats against the KTUF and workers if they dared make use of their right to 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 , even though it is recognised in national law, threatening – in vain – all kinds of punishment. Over in Bahrain, following the vicious repression of the democratic uprising in February 2011, the government persisted in persecuting thousands of workers, who were dismissed or sent to prison.

Within these new parameters created in 2011, in which independent trade unionism has become a part of the struggle for democratic change throughout the region, the situation of migrant workers remains the same: 15 million people still live in a highly precarious situation, with no recognition recognition The designation by a government agency of a union as the bargaining agent for workers in a given bargaining unit, or acceptance by an employer that its employees can be collectively represented by a union. of their fundamental rights, and no means of demanding their recognition recognition The designation by a government agency of a union as the bargaining agent for workers in a given bargaining unit, or acceptance by an employer that its employees can be collectively represented by a union. , other than the assistance and protection provided by the trade unions of Bahrain and Kuwait.

The Arab Spring has brought to the fore the irrepressible spirit of a young generation that has hitherto been completely marginalised, deprived of freedom, jobs and any hope of a better life, but has now proved that it is ready to make any sacrifice necessary for the recognition recognition The designation by a government agency of a union as the bargaining agent for workers in a given bargaining unit, or acceptance by an employer that its employees can be collectively represented by a union. of its fundamental rights. Nearly 50,000 young people lost their lives in 2011, in peaceful demonstrations that criminal governments shamelessly turned into killing fields. By adopting freedom, dignity and social justice, the very values that the bona fide trade union movement has always defended, as their own battle cry, this peaceful youth movement has created the common ground between its own struggle and that of all workers in the region. This has created an historic opportunity for the Arab trade union organisations, emerging from half a century of political authoritarianism, to adapt their internal mechanisms to the new national realities and to work towards their own renewal. Will they be able to meet the challenge of adapting their own structures and priorities to meet the expectations of the younger generation, responding to their aspirations by taking up their just demands and making them their own? The future capacity and vitality of the independent trade union movement depends on the answer to these questions.

Finally, all the events of this year of the Arab Spring have served to highlight the central and very visible role of the women of the region in the struggle for democracy. It is not yet certain however that this process will lead to the recognition recognition The designation by a government agency of a union as the bargaining agent for workers in a given bargaining unit, or acceptance by an employer that its employees can be collectively represented by a union. of equal rights for women. That is the next major challenge for the independent trade union movement which – if it is to meet it within an extremely difficult process of political transition – will need all the solidarity it can get from the international trade union movement.

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The Arab Spring and independent trade unions: High hopes and new challenges