The UMT team in parliament says it is “not concerned” with its union’s street protests, justifying its vote in favor of the regional companies law

2023-04-20 01:00:35

Noureddine Slick, head of the Moroccan Labor Union team in the House of Councilors, said that his team “is not concerned with what is happening outside the walls of the parliament dome in terms of protests against the draft law for new regional companies for the distribution of water and electricity, which his union is fighting with protests in the street.

The Moroccan Labor Union team voted in the House of Councilors yesterday in favor of a draft law establishing regional companies for the distribution of water and electricity, at a time when the National Water University of this union launched a national strike against it from the day before yesterday, Monday, until today, Wednesday.

The union voted in favor of the draft law in a plenary session held by the Council, yesterday, Tuesday, while 5 members voted against it, 3 for the Democratic Confederation of Labor and 2 for the National Union of Labor in Morocco.

Sleek added, in a statement to “Al-Youm 24”, that this law was consulted with the concerned sectors of his union, which submitted their proposals in the form of amendments submitted by the team during the discussion of the draft law in the Council’s Interior Committee. He added that his team voted in favor of the draft law, given the government’s acceptance of about half of the amendments he submitted, including the amendment that concerns Article 16, which stipulates guaranteeing the rights of workers in the water and electricity sector, by the commitment of new regional companies to all agreements concluded with the state that fall within the framework of preserving the earnings of users. to whom they will be transferred.

This statement matches what was confirmed by Mohamed Zeroual, president of the National Federation of Energy Workers of the Moroccan Labor Union, on the same issue. He stated to “Al-Youm 24” that “his union refuses to go out into the street and that it is in the process of drafting a framework agreement with the Ministry of the Interior for the rights of employees to be transferred according to the law to regional companies, including those related to retirement and social work.”

So who are those who go out to protest in the street in the name of the Moroccan Labor Union? Abdel-Aziz Lasheer, the first deputy of the National Clerk of the National Water University affiliated to this syndicate, is one of them. “This vote does not concern us, and we will continue to protest against regional companies,” he told Al-Youm 24, holding on to his protests against the draft law.

He pointed out that when the law comes into force, “we will refuse to leave our offices at the National Office for Electricity and Drinking Water and we will not join the new regional companies.”