A powerful union in Tunisia has announced that it will hold a national public strike in June. The General Union of Tunisian Workers, or UGTT, which has more than 1 million members, called for the public strike for June 16, after the government refused wage increases for state workers. The strike is set to include 159 state-owned companies, including airlines and transportation companies. The country is in a major financial crisis, for which it is working to obtain a loan of $4 billion from the International Monetary Fund. The wage freeze is a reform meant to help Tunisia reach a deal with the IMF. The other reforms include food and energy subsidies cuts. The union has said that it would not participate in a national dialogue proposed by President Kais Saied, who last year dismissed his government and seized a number of powers by granting himself executive authority in what critics have called a coup.
Inflation reached a record high of 7.5% in April and the country’s budget deficit is expected to reach 9.7% of gross domestic product this year.
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Saied last month dissolved the country’s parliament and then seized control of the country’s election commission. In September 2021, he announced that he would rule by decree. A month later, he appointed a new prime minister, and then approved a new cabinet of political neophytes, coming from academia or who were civil servants, which he dissolved earlier this month. Saied wants to amend the 2014 constitution, likely overturning democratic principles introduced after the 2011 revolution which he says he will then submit to a popular referendum in July, ahead of the December elections.
Tunisia became a democracy in 2011 as part of the Arab Spring revolutions. Its democratic president and parliamentary form of government have experienced some difficulties. Saied was elected president in 2019.