Union Générale Tunisienne du Travail

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UGTT headquarters in Tunis

The Union Générale Tunisienne du Travail ( UGTT ; Arabic الاتحاد العام التونسي للشغل, DMG al-ittiḥād al-ʿāmm at-tūnisī li-š-šuġl ) is the name of the Tunisian trade union umbrella organization based in Tunis . As part of the Quartet du dialogue national , the UGTT was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2015.

The association was founded on January 20, 1946 on the initiative of its then first chairman Farhat Hached through the merging of a number of individual trade unions. The UGTT was at the forefront of the struggle to gain state independence in March 1956 from the French protectorate. In December 1952 Farhat Hached was murdered, probably on behalf of the French. After independence, conflicts quickly arose with the new government under Habib Bourguiba . The state repeatedly tried to exert its influence through violent interventions. Union leaders have been arrested several times. Until the end of the autocratic regime under Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali , the attitude and self-image of the union, which operates as a unified union, fluctuated between the approach of employee representation and that of the state's transmission belt, which was particularly prevalent in higher circles of functionaries.

After the revolution in Tunisia in 2010/2011 , the union played an important role as a powerful civil society force in the democratization process and, among other things, played a leading role in bringing the country's secular and Islamist political forces into dialogue in December 2013 and the new one in January 2014 Constitution of the Republic of Tunisia to be adopted by consensus. In May 2014, the UGTT was selected by the Norwegian Nobel Prize Committee for this role as a candidate for the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize . It had previously been nominated by four Tunisian universities. A year later, the UGTT parenting Quartet du dialogue national was awarded the Nobel Prize.

Chairperson (General Secretaries)

Web links

Commons : Union Générale Tunisienne du Travail  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mustapha Tlili: A Nobel Peace Prize for UGTT-Tunisia? In: Equaltimes.org , May 7, 2014.