Government, unions offer diverging participation rates following strike

The two-day first general strike called for by Morocco’s labor unions since 2016 ended Thursday with diverging participation rate figures.

Unions said the two-day strike that started on Feb 5 was a success with a participation rate of 80% in both the private and the public sector.

In a joint statement, the most representative four labor unions said the strike was needed to denounce degradation of the purchasing power of the working class and expensive cost of life as well as what they described as a restriction of unions following a strike law they said was curbing their rights.

Meanwhile, Employment Minister Younes Sekkouri said participation in the strike did not exceed 1.4% in the private sector and 32% in the public sector.

While stressing that the strike law that was recently adopted was balanced and protected the rights of workers, employers and society, Sekkouri said Unions practiced their right to call for a strike freely.

Offering more details, he said the participation rate reached 35.5% in education institutions, 33.3% among health workers and 30.5 in the justice sector. In the rest of the country’s public institutions the rate stood at 25.9%.