Moroccan teachers to go on strike december 11-13 at unions' call

Three Moroccan trade unions have called for a three-day "national strike" of the education sector December 11-13 and for a national march in Rabat after the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

The call was launched during a meeting held Tuesday in Rabat by the National Education Union, affiliated to the CDT trade union (Conf?d?ration D?mocratique du Travail), the Education Autonomous Federation, stemming from the UGTM (Union G?n?rale des Travailleurs du Maroc) and the National Education Federation, affiliated to the UMT (Union Marocaine du Travail).

The meeting discussed the teachers' claims and grievances, especially after "the banning and repression" of a protest sit-in last November 14, and in the absence of "a genuine resolve on the part of the government to meet the legitimate claims of the education sector family," the three unions said in a release Wednesday.

Teachers had staged a strike November 13-14 to press on with their claims and prompt the government "live up to commitments" it made in the frame of the protocol of accord passed with trade unions on December 10, 2000. The strikers also staged sit-ins on Nov.13 in front of the offices of the ministry of education and on Nov.14 before the offices of the ministry of finance in all the cities of the kingdom.

The unions denounced in their release "the banning and repression" of the sit-in of Nov.14 in front of the ministry of finance in Rabat and said they strongly protest "the government's refusal to speed up the implementation of protocol of accord passed with trade unions on December 10, 2000.

Some 215,500 teachers are working in the Moroccan public education sector, including 121,763 in the primary education, 84,024 in secondary education and 9,701 in higher education.