Niger

Strikes over referendum declared illegal

Article published on the 2009-07-23 Latest update 2009-07-23 15:55 TU

Niger President Mamadou Tandja, pictured during an election rally in November 2004
(Photo : AFP)

A planned 48-hour nationwide strike in Niger was declared illegal on Thursday and further demonstrations on Sunday have also been banned by the courts. Seven trade unions had called for a work stoppage to protest plans by President Mamadou Tandja to extend his stay in office.

Tandja’s term is due to end on 22 December but he has called a referendum for 4 August to vote on a new constitution. If approved, it would allow the 71-year-old to stay in office until 2012 and to run for office again.

"The unions’ strike was declared illegal because its motives are not proper labour demands but purely political,” Niger’s Communication Minister Ben Omar told RFI.

Authorities also banned planned protests on Sunday due to the “prevailing social climate" in the country, according to the organisers.

Djibo Hamsa, a member of the executive council of the USTN trade union, rejected the government’s assertion that the strike was political.

“It is one of the points that we ask and they said everything is political because they considered only the referendum problem,” she told RFI.

“It’s not a political strike but we will go on strike for our interests and the interests of the workers. We ask the government to raise the salaries about 50 per cent and we ask to reduce the income tax [by] about 50 per cent.”

Covering medical costs for workers is another of the unions’ concerns. Hamsa said they are planning another 48-hour strike next Thursday and Friday but she does not know if it will be allowed to go ahead.

“We don’t know but we are going to try again. It is at the last moment that they said that it’s illegal and now we are going to try. We will try and try.”

Niger’s privately-owned newspapers began a week-long strike on Monday, while envoys from the United Nations and African regional bodies who met Tandja on Tuesday also expressed concern over his plans.

Tandja dissolved the parliament in May and later did the same with the Constitutional Court, after they rejected his proposal for a referendum three times. He has assumed emergency powers by decree and remains unrepentant about his plans.

"They want me to go back [on the plan to hold a referendum] because of an international pressure, but I will never do that," Tandja said on state television late on Wednesday night. "I won’t listen to anyone trying to prevent me from attaining the objectives of the people of Niger."