News

Mongi Abderrahim briefs workshop Top table at Amman workshop Hard at work in a working group

A network of graphical and packaging trade unions across North Africa and the Gulf was launched out of a workshop held in Amman, Jordan (20-22 August). The workshop - organised by UNI Graphical and FES foundation Germany - looked at union strategies to support organising in multinationals, build collective bargaining and step up wok to improve occupational health and safety. It’s part of UNI global union’s growing work in Arab countries with the establishment of a Tunis office with Sassi Nasreddine and the work of UNI Graphical's North Africa coordinator Mongi Abderrahim of UGTT Tunisia. Unions in the region face new issues of privatisation and the arrival of multinationals as well as long standing restrictions in some Arab countries on union rights and democracy. “As workers we always face daunting challenges,” said Mazen Ma’aytah from the Jordanian union centre GFTU. “The private sector is the master of political and economic decisions - we have to strengthen trade unions to achieve social justice.” “We are building a network that respects differences,” said UNI Graphical’s Adriana Rosenzvaig. “We need a strong organisation that will come from the commitment of unions at a national level.” Unions from Bahrein, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco and Tunisia endorsed plans for the network and for a regular questionnaire to brief unions on developments across the region.

Working groups looked at ways to develop the network and build union organising initiatives. There were calls to unions in the region to involve more women and young people and to reach out to migrant workers.

“Without collective bargaining there is no trade union activity,” said Bilal Milkawi from the International Transport Workers Federation. He called for professionalism in researching and preparing claims to well resourced employers and highlighted rising living costs facing workers.

“We need more real agreements and to take part in real collective bargaining,” said Jaafar Khalil Isa, from GFBTU Bahrein.

“Privatisation is a master that all countries suffer from. It’s a particular problem in Arab and developing countries because there are no agreed rules for globalisation,” said Yasin Al Faresi of GFKTU Kuwait.

Mohamed Alzubi of Jordanian print union GFJTU reported on a conference this weekend to look at ways to modernise Jordanian labour law. “We’re preparing unions for migrant workers and we are entering the multinationals.”



There were repeated calls from the workshop to governments in the region to ratify international conventions on labour rights and occupational health and safety.

Unions were urged to step up their work on health and safety to help protect members. From Egypt’s Ahmed Abd Elhamid, GTUPPI, came a call for specialised medical services and more training - “the more training we have, the safer our work places will be.”

“Health and safety is a key issue for trade unions to take up. You can have all the laws in place but if you don’t have a union looking at conditions, nothing will happen,” said Adriana.



* UNI Graphical plan follow up seminars aimed at Arab unions in security printing and packaging.