Chronicle of my losing battle to organize a union at Eurest Support Services, Algeria, by Yassine Zaïd, its General Secretary
May 16, 2009 by yacinezaid
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September 23rd, 1971: birth date.
January 21st, 2004: Recruited by Eurest Support Services, Algeria as a security agent.
June 2004: Promoted to the post of Safety Supervisor considering my aptitude, my competence and my experience in the field.
September 2006: birth of the idea to change our working conditions taking into account the accumulation of problems and suffering of the workers in the company. But it’s the snide remarks and the contempt of the expatriate members of the direction that are the most intolerable.
October 2006: The conditions of lodging, food and hygiene are deplorable and worsen day by day: insufficient beds, covers shared by employees at rest. Between shifts, employees are obliged to take blood tests. 3 to 7 days of waiting in miserable conditions before being transported to the work camps. For more, see this link (in French) :
November 2006: Provocations and humiliations are heard more and more often until one evening at Schlumberger when Bill Joel, Director of Operations, a French national of Belgian birth, remarks “You Algerians, you do not deserve independence!” Overheard by the wrong people, the companies unions get him banned from their offices and an official complaint is made to judicial authorities. On July 1st, 2007, the Public prosecutor of Hassi Messaoud claims 3 months imprisonment and a consequent fine against Bill Joel. But 15 days later, to the general surprise, he is let off with a fine of 50.000 dinars.
Read more (in French)
December 2006: I received a bonus and an encouragement letter of thanks for my efforts and my seriousness at work.
End of December 2006: Tired of these working conditions, several of my colleagues and me decide to create a local union in the company. ESS categorically refuses to recognize it or to let it meet in company buildings. It is thus legally constituted on December 21st, 2006 in the buildings of the local union of the UGTA. Present at the General Assembly, the members (1400 employees) elect me as General Secretary of the local union.
January 2007: The troubles start, Eurest refuses any contact with the local union and declares war on its General Secretary. The director of operations denies all rights to the local union and informs employees, and more especially those with temporary contracts, that those who defend their social rights will pay the price. Letters and requests for an office and a display panel for the local union remain without response.
End of January 2007: Union busting is at its prime. Management exerts pressures comparable to moral harassment hoping to reduce to silence any form of expression in the work place. The most vulnerable withdraw their support…
March 2007: Invited in order to gain respect of the law, two Factory inspectors are received by the director of operations with insults and arrogance. They make a statement to the Public Prosecutor who takes the case to court.
April 2007: Eurest, through its legal advisor and its Human Resources Manager, use doubtful methods to build a disciplinary case against the general secretary, accused of “insulting a member of management”. He lodges a complaint against me.
June 2007: Management succeeds in suspending the local union through the UGTA office in the wilaya of Ouargla in an unlawful way. The objective was to suspend, in turn, the general secretary.
End of June 2007: ESS suspends me for an unspecified time.
End of July 2007: Mr. Sidi Saïd, National Secretary of the UGTA intervenes personally. After investigating the illegal suspension of our local union, orders the person in charge of the regional office of the UGTA to lift the suspension (done in the following minute) and to make a formal complaint for this illegal suspension and the violation of trade union laws (still not done to this day).
September 2007: Creation of a Website where I describe these events to the whole world.
November 30th, 2007: The number 1 of ESS Algeria, Bill Joel, tears up the official order of installation of the local union of the UGTA in front of a gathering of employees. By this, he shows his contempt of local labour laws and intimates a message: any employee who dares raise his head will suffer the same fate as his predecessors. More.
December 2, 2007: A court fines me 10.000 dinars (100 €) for insulting a member of management. Witnesses in my favour had not been able to “release themselves from their work” to contribute to my defence at the time of the audience which took place on November 15th. Witnesses for management: the Human Resources Manager, a waiter (later promoted Maitre d’hôtel) and a security agent suffered no such obstructions. The judge raised some contradictions in their remarks but the case for the defence had lost a lot of weight.
January 2008: Complaints for slander on the Internet arrive one after the other: “I can only live in peace at the weekend when I am certain that the bailiffs are not working and will not bring more summonses to my door”. More.
June 2008: Condemned to two months of suspended sentence and a fine of 200.000 dinars (2.000 €). More.
November 2008: 02,11,16,23,30. 5 convocations before a judge. Same documents, same affair, just the name of the plaintiff that changes. It is supposed to be illegal, but since Eurest is mentioned, it works.
December 2008: The ITUC 2008 Annual Report on violations of trade union rights points a finger at Algeria and cites ESS.
March 17th, 2009: New hearing of the same affair. Compass Group pleads. The complaint made against me at Hassi Messaoud is rejected by the same court. Compass appeals.
March 31st, 2009: The Court of justice of Ouargla rejects their appeal once again.
In a few weeks, I will appear in the appeal court again following a judgment condemning me to a three months suspended prison sentence and to a fine of 80.000 dinars (800 Euros) in the affair with the Human Resources Manager.
Until today, three judgments, a period of unemployment of over a year and half, a divorce after two years of marriage and happiness, the end of a promising future…. “Do I regret having done what I did? Of course not… each day that passes, a hundred new people across the world learn my story”.
I am beginner in this field. Alone, standing up to a powerful multinational company, betrayed by some in favour of their personal interests with Eurest Support Services, Algeria, I cannot name names. But I shall never surrender and I will continue my fight, unmasked, until they silence me forever.
Yacine Zaid,
General Secretary of the local union of Eurest Support Services workers, Algeria.
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