Persistent Adverse Rumors Jolt “Throne” Of UGTA Trade Union Leader Sidi Said

The Secretary-General of the General Union of Algerian Workers (UGTA), Abdelmadjid Sidi Said, is currently the main target of persisting rumors about the “end of his duties” at the head of the Union and this raises many questions about the background and timing of these leaks, which came at a time of much debate about the outcome of the recent controversial “tripartite” meeting and some of its initiators.

These rumors began a few days ago to spread and linked the projected “eviction” of the first man in the UGTA Union’s center to a purported health problem. 

This was followed by a talk about the decision makers’ current intention to search for a successor to beleaguered Sidi Said, who has been at the head of Algeria’s oldest and most powerful trade union for more than two decades.

These rumors also came in the wake of the stern injunction issued by the Presidency of the Republic to rescind the implementation of the decision that emerged from the recent dubious “tripartite” meeting concerning the planned privatization and opening up of the capital of public enterprises, a rash decision that Sidi Said was one of the initiators. 

Analysts surmise to this effect that while the latter has been strong at the helm of the UGTA for many years, his grip on the levers of the Union now seems to have begun to wane woefully.