MOROCCO— Moroccan trade unions said their one-day strike that was staged on February 24 in an attempt to block a government draft bill to reform pensions was “successful”.
Public and private sector workers in Moroccos four labor unions went on strike for 24 hours on Wednesday, protesting government efforts to amend spending on pensions and subsidies.
In a statement they issued, the trade unions that are UMT, CDT and UGTM, along with the FDT said the rate of participation was almost 85 percent.
Morocco has ended fuel subsidies and frozen public-sector hiring, winning praise from international lenders who say it has made better progress in controlling public spending than some other countries in the region.
The strike comes after the government last month adopted a bill to reform the pension system.
This prompted the trade unions to call for a general strike on February 24.
We have been facing a stubborn government which does not believe in dialogue, but … in destroying peoples purchasing power, UMT leader Miloudi Moukharik told Reuters, forecasting parliament would reject the pension bill.
We have already delayed it three times inside the parliament and I can tell you that it will not pass.
Dozens of workers gathered in the headquarters of UMT and CDT, chanting slogans against government and foreign lenders such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
Unions control 20 of the 120 seats in the upper house and experts say other opposition parties would join them in rejecting the reform.
The proposed changes to state pension funds include raising the retirement age to 63 by 2019, and raising contributions, according to a government statement.
Workers will have to pay 14 percent of their salaries by 2019 and government contributions will rise in tandem, from 10 percent before the reform, adding 1 percentage point each year to meet the new plan.
The proposed changes to state pension funds include raising the retirement age to 63 by 2019, and raising contributions, according to a government statement.
Workers will have to pay 14 percent of their salaries by 2019 and government contributions will rise in tandem, from 10 percent before the reform, adding 1 percentage point each year to meet the new plan.
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