Tunisian Labor Union responds to Sidi Said accusations
Abdelmadjid Sidi Said. Photo: copyright
Tunisian General Labor Union condemned the accusations that were made by the leader of the General Union of Algerian Workers, Abdelmadjid Sidi Said, regarding the objective of the Tunisian Union together with the International Confederation of Unions, to break the central syndicate, and work to drag Algeria to an Arab spring, describing Sidi Said statements as aggressive.
Official spokesman of the General Union of Tunisian Workers, Sami Taheri, told Echorouk, that the accusations of Sidi Said are hostile.
“I am surprised of the conference that was launched by a prestigious organization such as the central syndicate, through talking about a similar organization in that way. We tried very hard to understand the background of Sidi Said’s attack on the Tunisian General Labor Union, but we did not understand.”
“Abdelmajid Sidi Said’s accusation started after the dispute between the Union of Arab workers, which belong to the central trade union, which is a politically decomposed organization that does not support the independence of syndicates, and agrees with the syndicalist tendency which calls for independence from governments. Sidi Said should have neither taken into account the historical brotherhood and common interest, nor involve the Tunisian Labor Union into internal battles.”
“This syndicalist dispute can not lead to accusations such as those that were launched by Sidi Said, or talk as imagined”, referring to the historical relationship between the Algerian and Tunisian Unions.
“Tunisia embraced the central syndicate during the liberation revolution, and the relationship between the two syndicates reached its peak, during the period of late Abdelhak Benhamouda.”
“Tunisian General Labor Union was expecting Sidi Said to support Tunisia in its revolution, because of the role which the Tunisian trade union organization played in the revolution, but he did not do that. What happened in Tunisia between 2011 to 2014 has nothing to do with the Arab Spring, but it was a revolution of freedom and dignity. I refuse to classify the Tunisian revolution in the framework of the creative chaos”.