RABAT (Reuters) – OCP, Morocco’s main export earner and one of the world’s leading suppliers of phosphate and fertilizers, said operations were unaffected by a call for a strike on Friday by one of the country’s main trade unions which disputes the monopoly’s claim.
Khalil Khellaf, a union leader in the Atlantic coast city of Safi where the strike was taking place, said shipments of triple superphosphate (TSP) fertilizer had been disrupted by the one-day strike.
“By 1215 (GMT), 510 out of the 3,100 employees OCP has in Safi took part in the strike. Over 80 percent of the port employees took part in the strike,” Khellaf told Reuters by telephone.
The National Union of Phosphate Labourers, affiliated to the main Democratic Labour Confederation (CDT), called on Thursday for the strike to press the state-run monopoly for better social benefits, especially subsidized housing and medical care.
An OCP official said operations “were 100 percent normal”.
“Only one production unit is affected. We have some 3,000 employees in Safi and those who took part in the strike do not exceed 12. The shipments are proceeding as normal,” the official said.
Khellaf said the Friday strike should serve as a warning to OCP which has come under intense pressure in the past 12 months mainly to provide more jobs and better living conditions.
“The demands we are pushing for concern all of OCP’s 20,000 employees. OCP’s management refuses to open channels for dialogue and if this policy continues we will be conducting more drastic industrial action in the weeks to come,” Khellaf said.
Morocco’s 1962 constitution authorised strikes but subjected their organisation to a framework law that still has not been published.
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