Tunisia: President Meets UGTT Union Leader During Commemoration

On December 5, 2024, Tunisia commemorated the assassination of trade union leader Farhat Hached, the founder of the General Union of Tunisian Workers (UGTT). Seventy-two years after the event, the President of the Republic directly addressed the current Secretary-General of the UGTT, Noureddine Taboubi. Just the day before, Taboubi had called for the resumption of social dialogue to overcome the country’s economic and social crisis. This was a sight unseen by Tunisians for months: President Kais Saïed speaking to Noureddine Taboubi, the Secretary-General of the UGTT, a union known in Tunisia for its significant political influence.

Today, the UGTT remains one of the last standing intermediary bodies since President Kais Saïed’s power grab on July 25, 2021, and the subsequent dismantling of several democratic institutions.

Having been less vocal over the past year as it refocuses on its union base and undergoes significant internal changes, the union came back into the spotlight this week following the vote on the new finance law. Noureddine Taboubi expressed concern that this primarily “fiscal” legislation would have “social consequences,” in his own words.

President Promises to Address Tunisians’ Aspirations

In response on Thursday, President Kais Saïed assured that he intends to revise the Labor Code to meet “the aspirations of Tunisians,” while also expressing a desire to collaborate on implementing a legislative revolution and to break away from makeshift solutions.

The President of the country also called for national unity. These words were attentively listened to by the union leader, who remained mostly silent in the video excerpt published on the presidency’s official Facebook page.