Two-day workers strike shuts down country

A two-day strike called by Mali's largest workers' union, to protest what the union said was government failure to improve workers conditions as promised during elections in April 2002, on Monday shut down government offices, schools, businesses, telecommunications and the media. Only banks and insurance companies remained open as the strike entered its second day on Tuesday, defying orders from the National Union of Malian Workers (UNTM). The UNTM is the country's oldest union. In 1991 it played an important role in toppling Malian President Moussa Toure. Of the country's 40 daily and weekly newspapers, only two papers appeared on news stands in the capital, Bamako, and in the rest of the country on Tuesday. In announcing the strike in mid-September, UNTM said it was dissatisfied with the government of President Amadou Toumani Toure, saying his administration had failed to keep electoral promises and improve workers' conditions. According to UNTM's secretary-general Siaka Diakite, the government had turned a deaf-ear on demands for an increase in the minimum salary, raising the retirement age in the private sector, harmonization of salaries between consultants and full-time workers and creating a national programme of development of workers, among other demands. The government had also failed to reduce water, electricity and telephone costs. "The government has not kept a lot of promises," Diakite said on Monday in Bamako. He said the government had turned thousands of Malian workers into a "laughing stock", warning that the strike which is supposed to end on Tuesday, could go on. The workers, he added, could renew it as many times as necessary until "all their demands are met." Claiming most Malians could no longer afford water, electricity or telephones, the union said: "These services cannot be afforded from the pockets of all Malians. The government has not ensured that tariff reduction becomes a reality." The UNTM, which is the umbrella organisation for 13 national and eight regional workers' unions, and 52 local organizations, attempted to avert the strike through discussions with the government in late September. However the talks failed. Sources said while the country stayed shut, behind-the-scenes negotiations were going on, to resolve the workers grievances. However the union warned that if it did not feel that progress was being made, it would launch another on 24 October. That date would coincide with a state visit to Mali by French President, Jacques Chirac. The strike has been the most crippling since Toure became president in April 2002. The labour ministry however said the government was determined to significantly reduce the price of water, electricity, telephone and medicines. An average worker in the West African Sahelian country of Mali, where only 41 percent out of a population of 11 million are literate, earns about US $44 per month.