Algeria: judicial workers on hunger strike
June 06, 2012
The hunger strikers began their protest following a government crackdown on a national protest by judicial workers on 24 April. According to a statement issued by the administration workers’ union, security forces violently broke up the peaceful protest, wounding and arresting more than 150 women. Reports of severe police brutality against women held in detention include cases of multiple bone fractures, loss of consciousness, and one woman’s subsequent miscarriage.
Workers in the judicial sector, who are primarily women, have led several protests in recent months against repeated infringements on their right to organize. Consequently, many workers have been denied pay, suspended, transferred or dismissed. Additionally, there have been numerous accounts of verbal and physical harassment of judicial workers.
PSI is now calling on its affiliates to send similar letters of protest, you may download the model letter below or send it online on the Labourstart website.
Please send copies of your own letter to PSI at rights@world-psi.org, psi.arab.countries@world-psi.org as well as to the Algerian embassy in your country.
