News

UNI Global Union General Secretary Philip Jennings addressed the 60th anniversary of the trade union centre UMT in Casablanca Morocco. The conference was attended by 2000 delegates including key political and business leaders. Jennings said, “It was one of the liveliest, noisiest conferences I have ever addressed!”

In his remarks to the conference he congratulated the UMT on the strong presence of a new generation of workers with women making up 1 in 2 of participants. He welcomed cooperation between the UMT and UNI Global Union in their work to Break Through in the services sectors. Call centres is a priority where over 80,000 people are employed. The two unions are actively organising and building numbers as workplace elections approach.

There was a strong international delegation, particularly from the Middle East and North Africa and Jennings took time to talk with Shaher Saeed, General Secretary of Palestine’s PGFTU.

The UMT, with other centres, has been crucial to the process of democratic reform since 2011. In 2014 they brought 300,000 people into the streets for social justice for Moroccan workers.

The UMT General Secretary Miloudi Moukharik in a forceful address drew attention to favourable economic growth being achieved whilst income inequality grew. The UMT has echoed the theme of our recent UNI Global Union Congress and declared “Moroccan workers need a pay rise.” He was very clear in his demand that the rights of workers to organise and negotiate must be respected by all authorities in Morocco.