TEACHERS ON HUNGER STRIKE IN CONTRACT DISPUTE GET

C O N F I D E N T I A L ALGIERS 000865

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/04/2018
TAGS: PGOV PHUM ELAB SOCI AG
SUBJECT: TEACHERS ON HUNGER STRIKE IN CONTRACT DISPUTE GET
LITTLE SYMPATHY FROM AUTHORITIES

Classified By: Charge d'Affaires, a.i. Thomas F. Daughton
for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).


1. (C) SUMMARY: Algerian teachers hired on short-term,
renewable contracts are locked in a stand-off with the
education ministry over demands for improved compensation and
preferred consideration for permanent appointments. The
teachers' demands have received steadily increasing attention
in the national press as labor unions, human rights activists
and contract teachers throughout Algeria highlight the plight
of 45 contract teachers who started a hunger strike in front
of the National Press House on July 15. Emergency services
have since taken more than 20 to hospitals, and at least one
remains in serious condition. The striking teachers claim
they would rather die with dignity than continue to work
under conditions they describe as miserable. Other contract
teachers have said they will not return to work in the fall
if the authorities refuse to hear their complaints. Algiers
police used force to disperse a gathering of labor union
representatives and teachers who assembled in front of the
education ministry on July 30 to voice their solidarity with
the strikers. So far the government has refused to open a
dialogue with contract teachers and instead plans to open
competition for vacant teaching posts. The Autonomous Union
of Administration Staff (SNAPAP) is planning a sit-in on
August 5 to bolster support for the teachers' cause. If
protesters attempt as planned to rally near the Presidency,
it is likely that the authorities will respond again with
force. END SUMMARY.

DYING FOR BETTER CONDITIONS
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2. (U) Fed up with alleged unfair labor practices and failed
attempts to make their concerns heard, 45 Algerian school
teachers employed under short-term renewable contracts with
the Ministry of National Education (MNE) took matters into
their own hands by announcing a hunger strike that began on
July 15. The contract teachers have staged their protest
outside the entrance to the National Press House in Algiers
and say they will not end their strike until Education
Minister Aboubaker Benbouzid agrees to meet with them and
discuss their demands. After 20 days, emergency services
took 26 teachers to local hospitals, where one remains in
critical condition. In a press release on July 23, the
National Council for Contract Teachers (CNEC) said that the
teachers were refusing to drink sugar-water and that the
health of many protesters was rapidly deteriorating. Despite
health concerns, the communique asserted that the teachers
would rather "die with their dignity," than continue to live
under "humiliating and miserable conditions."


3. (U) The CNEC, an independent labor union that represents
40,000 contract teachers throughout Algeria and is affiliated
with SNAPAP, has called on the MNE to provide a mechanism to
integrate contract teachers into the career teaching service,
reinstate contract teachers that have been recently laid off,
and pay compensation for periods of summer recess in which
contract teachers, unlike career-appointed teachers, receive
no salary. According to local media, 1400 contract teachers
in the city of Bejaia claim that that they have not received
their salaries for three years, while 235 teachers in the
southern wilaya (province) of Adrar stated that they are paid
only once a year.

GOVERNMENT SILENCE
--------------


4. (U) Minister Benbouzid has said little in response to the
hunger strike. He only broke his silence on July 28, and
then dismissed the strikers' demand for career appointments
by implying that they were unqualified. Benbouzid asserted
that he would not respond to the strikers' call for an open
dialogue with his ministry and was quoted in the press as
saying that their only option was to participate in a
forthcoming national competition to recruit teachers to fill
as many as 26,000 vacant positions. Contract teachers have
asserted that in the past, similar national competitions have
lacked transparency and that in some cases local
administrators have excluded contract teachers from the
competition. The strikers also complain that the national
competition does not give consideration to the years of
teaching experience many of them have accumulated.

TAKING IT TO THE STREETS?
--------------


5. (C) Since the beginning of the hunger strike, SNAPAP and
CNEC have succeeded in attracting the support of independent
labor unions and civil society to raise the profile of the
contract teachers' grievance. In recent days, most of the
independent French-language dailies have devoted significant
coverage to the precarious health of the hunger strikers and
the broad support they are receiving from other
organizations. There are also signs that tension between the
authorities and protesters is increasing. Algerian police
used force to disperse a gathering of independent labor
unionists and contract teachers that assembled for a sit-in
at the MNE on July 30. The police confiscated materials and
a camera from a journalist covering the event and refused to
allow SNAPAP to leave a letter addressed to the minister.


6. (C) COMMENT: SNAPAP Secretary General Nacira Ghozlane
told us that the contract teachers are determined to continue
their strike until their demands are heard. Ghozlane said
that despite the July 30 police crackdown, SNAPAP would
attempt to organize another sit-in on August 5, this time in
front of the Presidency. All public gatherings in Algiers
require a permit under the emergency decree in place since
the early 1990s, and SNAPAP has no permit. We anticipate
that any attempt to stage a sit-in near the heavily secured
Presidency will not be met sympathetically by the police.
DAUGHTON