Moroccan workers win higher wages

This video says about itself:

Moroccan security forces attack sacked workers in Tangiers- The black Tuesday 27/02/2007

Sacked workers of the two multinationals Dewhirst and Delphi, belonging to the Union Nationale du Travail au Maroc (UNTM), have been observing since December peaceful sit-ins in front of their respective factories. On Tuesday 270/02/2007 Moroccan security forces violently attacked them. The result is 32 arrested including 16 women and three women injured.

Dewhirst

Tuesday 27/02/2007
05.30 am

Around 350 sacked workers gather in front of the Dewhirst Ladieswear as usual in a peaceful way.

6.00 am

Security forces intervened to disperse workers. Security forces separated men from women. Women gathered again not far from the factory, while men gathered on the other side of the factory.

Between 9 and 10 am

Security forces pursued men workers farther.

11h45 am

Security forces set up some barricades on the road to impede men workers from coming back close to the factory.

This tactic was followed to attack women workers who were in the same position as of 6.00 am. Forces of police, mobile intervention units (CMI) and auxiliary forces (Para-military units) participated to the attack.

The result of the attack: 15 women workers arrested and three women workers injured.

Delphi automotive
2.00 pm

Forces of police, mobile intervention units (CMI) and auxiliary forces (Para-military units) participated to the attack on sacked workers of Delphi Automotive who were gathering in front of the factory in Tangiers.

The result of the attack: 17 workers arrested of whom one woman.

All the 32 workers were later released but refused the right to protest against their sacking.

Hundreds of families lost their only source of income.

From Bikya Masr:

Apr 27th, 2011

By Davide Morandini

Morocco’s government accedes to public’s demands

­Morocco’s government has agreed to raise public sector salaries and the minimum wage as growing demands by the population have threatened the rule of the Arab world’s longest-serving dynasty.

According to Moroccan state television, on Tuesday Prime Minister Abbas Al Fassi signed a draft agreement on salaries with unions.

Public sector employees would get an $80 per month increase as of May 1. The agreement comes as King Mohammed’s government is trying to prevent the spreading to Morocco of the unrest that has roiled other North African countries.

Thousands of Moroccans have been marching peacefully for three days in a row to demand reforms. Crowds demanding political reform gathered in several towns from Tangiers to Marrakesh and in the capital Rabat.

In March the king announced constitutional reforms that reduce the power of the monarchy in an effort to mollify government critics.

Land border between Algeria and Morocco will reopen “sooner or later”

The land border between Morocco and Algeria closed seventeen years ago, will be reopened “sooner or later”, said in Rabat Monday an Algerian minister during the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding to strengthen the food safety between the two countries.

In a letter titled “Ruh Jedida: A New Spirit for 2011,” young Jewish descendants of the Arab and Islamic world living in Israel write to their peers in the Middle East and North Africa. “We, as the descendents of the Jewish communities of the Arab and Muslim world, the Middle East and the Maghreb, and as the second and third generation of Mizrahi Jews in Israel, are watching with great excitement and curiosity the major role that the men and women of our generation are playing so courageously in the demonstrations for freedom and change across the Arab world. We identify with you and are extremely hopeful for the future of the revolutions that have already succeeded in Tunisia and Egypt. We are equally pained and worried at the great loss of life in Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, Syria, and many other places in the region”: here.