The Tunisian tourism industry has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic with Tunisia’s tourism revenue plunging by 65% in 2020 compared with 2019. Most hotels in Tunisia remain closed, and tens of thousands of workers in the tourism sector have lost their jobs.
However, IUF affiliate FGAT-UGTT is determined to ensure workers are protected, and so, together with the US trade union support organisation, Solidarity Center, the union organized a workshop to train union representatives from the tourism sector on key provisions of national law and collective bargaining as well as to review the existing sectoral-level agreement between FGAT and the tourism employers’ association.
- The workshop included 8 female and 16 male trade union participants from the tourism and travel agency sector from various regions as well as members of the negotiating committees in the tourism sector
- FGAT-UGTT is planning regional organizing campaigns with a strong gender focus as well as a communications campaign with tools for workplace organizing
Saber Tibini, General Secretary of FGAT-UGTT, said, “Despite the impact of the economic and political situation coupled with COVID-19 on the tourism sector in Tunisia, we will not relinquish our rights, and we will continue to negotiate and engage in dialogue in order to realize our demands.”
