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 -------------- ¶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