Strikes erupt as Morocco’s government workers grow restive
Morroco’s disgruntled workers have launched rolling strikes this June raising fears of wider resistance as the Kingdom increasingly cracks down on dissent.
Local government employees across Morocco began a nationwide strike on June 11, reports Telquel. The strikes, spearheaded by the National Front of Local Government Employees, are set to continue throughout June and include government staff across all levels, including temporary workers.
The movement comes as officials increasingly crack down on dissent. In February, a wave of protests erupted in response to a widely unpopular draft bill that sought to impose restrictions on strike freedoms. The bill mandated advanced notice for strikes and strict penalties for those who did not have approval, which critics argued effectively criminalized protest.
Despite public outcry, the bill was passed in March reflecting Rabat’s efforts to quash frustration with persistent inflation, stagnant wages, and top-down governance in sectoral “dialogues.”
The strike is meant to represent a range of sectors, including advocates from education, agriculture, healthcare, and transportation.
Among the Front’s key demands are a general wage increase, the introduction of a thirteenth-month bonus ––already granted in other public sectors–– and a more equitable basic pay system. Also central to the protests was the opposition to the recent absorption of the KNOPS fund into the national social security regime and the rollback of certain retirement benefits.
Financial justice aside, the protests signal a pushback against what many see as an assault on democracy.
Despite repeated announcements of dialogue initiatives by the Ministry of Interior, few concrete outcomes have followed. Workers, for their part, have grown weary of false promises issued through official channels and echoed in state-aligned media outfits.
Hesspress and Morocco Mirror, for instance, have reported on the surge in unrest especially in the Kingdom’s public sector, while parroting government claims of “commitment to social dialogue.”
In its latest communiqué, the Front pointed to the government’s “disregard and contempt” for local workers and urged a wider coalition of unions, civil society actors, and human rights organizations to join the mobilization. They called for “the settlement of pending issues within the framework of sectoral dialogue.”
Telquel/ Maghrebi
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