While the Minister of Transport and Logistics, Mohamed Abdeljalil, began a series of meetings with transporters’ unions on Wednesday 23 February to reflect on the measures to be taken to deal with soaring fuel prices, some unions have declared the strike, others not.
The trade union coordination of the road transport sector in Morocco, composed of CDT, UMT, FDT, UGTM, UNTM, has announced a 72-hour national strike from March 7, 2022, which may be extended.
Meeting on February 24, after the meeting held with the Minister of Transport and in which the UMT took part according to our sources, the coordination discussed the suffocating crisis that the sector is experiencing in all its categories and stopped on “the disinterest of government authorities in the calls made to them for dialogue in order to restore the problems experienced by professionals following the contagious rise in fuel prices and its direct impact on their financial balance, which has prompted many professionals to announced bankruptcy ».
According to our associative sources who took part in the minister’s meeting, several unions mentioned the intention of the strike without however setting any dates. Others expect strong reactions from the government. Otherwise, they threaten to take action.
But in short, it is part of the transporters’ unions which announced the strike and not all of them, specifies our source, noting that the transport sector has an indeterminate number of unions and professional associations. Some are affiliated with political parties, some of which are independent.
But the reality of the crisis linked to the rise in fuel prices affects all transport professionals who consider this substance as a raw material for the survival of their activity, he tells us, in view of the problems that have accumulated. on the sector and which have not been treated.
Moreover, the rise in fuel prices has been repeatedly raised by transport professionals, who have called on the government, since the time of Minister Abdelakder Amara, to set up professional diesel for the benefit of professionals, the image of their comrades in fishing and agriculture.
Other demands had also been brandished by the transporters’ unions, in particular the renewal of the fleet, professional diesel (sale of diesel to professionals in the road transport sector at a preferential rate given the nature of their work), the professional card for drivers , and continuous and accelerated training, at the expense of the ministry, for the benefit of drivers who already have professional training.
His demands had been the subject of an agreement signed between the transporters, who had started a strike in 2019, and the Ministry of Transport at the time of Abdelkader Amara, for a budget envelope of 3 million dirhams. In October 2021, its promises have never seen the light of day.