AFRICA

Moroccan port unionist released

14 years ago

The UMT union worker that organised both a Tangier dockworker agreement and protests against the stranding of nearly 200 Moroccan seafarers in Spanish and French ports has finally been released.

The call to free Said El Hairech took on international dimensions

Said El Hairech, head of the Port and Dockers section within the UMT transport union and general secretary of the Moroccan Merchant Mariners Mohammad Chamchati were arrested in June. The pair, say International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), were arrested because they carried the mandatory international obligations they have to protect labour rights.

Mr El Hairech and Mr Chamchati assisted in defending the rights of stranded Moroccan seafarers following the bankruptcy of the Comarit-Comanav ferry company, and were also involved in a (short lived) collective agreement last November for dockers in the Eurogate terminal in Tangiers.

However it has been a situation complicated by the circumstances involving the arrest of Taoufik Ibrahimi on conspiracy to undermine the TangerMed port facility and involvement in the Comarit-Comanav problem. There was some thought that Mr Ibrahimi had worked with union leaders to foment strikes, although many felt it was more a case of the pair being blamed for their part in high profile disturbances.