Jordania - Public port workers win right to form a union after violent attacks (2010)

Around 3,000 workers in the port of Aqaba in Jordan have won the right to belong to an independent union following a dispute over pay and conditions. Public sector workers have until now been banned from union membership. The workers, represented by an employees’ committee, organised a sit-in in the state-owned port of Aqaba for two weeks in August, bringing activities to a standstill. Police attacks took place during the action and a number of workers were injured, one seriously. Six union committee members were also arrested and subsequently released.

Negotiations to end the dispute, mediated by Mazen Ma’aytah, general secretary of the General Federation of Jordanian Trade Unions, and monitored by the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) led to a guarantee - for the first time - that workers have the right to belong to their own elected union. Government also offered a pay package that met the workers’ demands.

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