Mass Protest in Tunis Demands Protection of Workers’ and Civic Rights

Thousands of members and supporters of Tunisia’s powerful General Labour Union (UGTT) marched in Tunis on Thursday to denounce what they described as shrinking union rights and civic freedoms, escalating a confrontation with President Kais Saied.

The demonstration, one of the country’s largest in recent months, followed a nationwide UGTT strike last month over wages and working conditions that disrupted transport services and heightened pressure on Saied to address Tunisia’s worsening economic crisis. Earlier this month, hundreds of the president’s supporters rallied outside UGTT headquarters demanding the union be suspended.

Protesters gathered outside UGTT headquarters and moved through Habib Bourguiba Avenue, a symbolic site of the 2011 uprising that toppled President Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali and ignited the Arab Spring. They chanted slogans such as “The right to struggle is a duty,” while denouncing poverty and hunger and calling for workers’ rights to be safeguarded.

UGTT Secretary-General Noureddine Taboubi condemned “threats and smear campaigns” against the union and urged authorities to release political prisoners and ensure fair trials. “The union will not deviate from the path of struggle and will adhere to its social and national role to guarantee workers’ rights,” he said.

Authorities did not immediately comment.

Saied, who seized sweeping powers in 2021 by suspending parliament and ruling by decree, has since dissolved the Supreme Judicial Council and dismissed dozens of judges—moves the opposition calls a coup.