{"id":23495,"date":"2016-02-25T03:35:55","date_gmt":"2016-02-25T03:35:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/moroccan-unions-stage-strike-over-pension-reform\/"},"modified":"2016-02-25T03:35:51","modified_gmt":"2016-02-25T03:35:51","slug":"moroccan-unions-stage-strike-over-pension-reform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/moroccan-unions-stage-strike-over-pension-reform\/","title":{"rendered":"Moroccan unions stage strike over pension reform bill"},"content":{"rendered":"

{The 24-hour strike by four largest labour unions aims at blocking a government draft bill to reform pensions.}<\/p>\n

Moroccan trade unions have held a one-day strike in a bid to block a government draft bill to reform pensions.<\/p>\n

Public and private sector workers in Morocco’s four largest labour unions went on strike for 24 hours on Wednesday, protesting government efforts to overhaul spending on pensions and subsidies. <\/p>\n

According to the largest labour union in the country, the national participation rate is nearly 85 percent. <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The strike comes after the government last month adopted a bill to reform the pension system. <\/p>\n

But protests such as Wednesday’s general strike, called by the Moroccan Labour Union (UMT) and three other union movements, have started to weigh on the Islamist-led government’s plans to curb deficits and revive public finances.<\/p>\n

“We have been facing a stubborn government which does not believe in dialogue, but … in destroying people’s purchasing power,” UMT leader Miloudi Moukharik told Reuters, forecasting parliament would reject the pension bill.<\/p>\n

“We have already delayed it three times inside the parliament and I can tell you that it will not pass.”<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The strike disrupted the port of Casablanca, Morocco’s biggest city, as well as transport and other sectors, a Reuters witness said. However, small shops, bars and cafes and some taxi drivers were working.<\/p>\n

“We have always been in talks with the union and we will keep talking on the pension reform,” Communication Minister and government spokesman Mustapha Khalfi told Reuters.<\/p>\n

He said called the strike unjustified and said without reform, the pensions of 400,000 workers would be at risk because the government would not be able to finance them.<\/p>\n

The pension bill reached the second house of Morocco’s parliament last month but the government has so far failed to get it discussed.<\/p>\n

Unions control 20 of the 120 seats in the upper house and experts say other opposition parties would join them in rejecting the reform.<\/p>\n

Moukharik declined to give details on the unions’ next move, saying they will meet to decide on action.<\/p>\n

The proposed changes to state pension funds include raising the retirement age to 63 by 2019, and raising contributions, according to a government statement.<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

\"Moroccan<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{The 24-hour strike by four largest labour unions aims at blocking a government draft bill to reform pensions.} Moroccan trade unions have held a one-day strike in a bid to block a government draft bill to reform pensions. Public and private sector workers in Morocco’s four largest labour unions went on strike for 24 hours […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[100],"byline":[2474],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-23495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","tag-africa","byline-al-jazeera"],"bylines":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23495\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23495"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=23495"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=23495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}