The Malian government and the National Union of Malian workers (UNTM), the largest trade union in Mali, on Monday resumed negotiations that were suspended on Friday to allow the authorities to respond to the demands, union sources said in Bamako.
According to the sources, the responses expected from the government will determine the new position of the trade union which members observed two work stoppages in one month, resulting in losses of dozens of billions of CFAF to the national economy.
In a tweet on Monday, Prime Minister Moctar Ouane stressed that “significant progress” had been recorded in the discussions he undertook with the trade union since 9 December.
He deplored the suspension of negotiations by the UNTM which considered comments made by the acting president while on a visit to Côte d’Ivoire as “threatening and scornful”.
Bah N’Daw, in a meeting with Malians living in Côte d’Ivoire, had criticized the attitude of the leaders of the trade-union, treating as ‘fools’ those who triggered the strikes in this decisive moment of life in Mali.
The trade union suspended any dialogue following those comments by the Malian transitional president before deciding finally to return, from last Friday, to the negotiation table “in the name of the higher interest of the nation”, according to the UNTM Secretary-General, Yacouba Katilé.
The trade union launched a strike from 14 to 18 December which was followed all over the national territory, paralyzing almost all activities.
The union is demanding, among other things, the harmonization of the salary grid for government workers, premiums and compensations for some categories of workers, the re-launch of the railway, the revision of the bill governing creation of the national office of fight against illegal enrichment, and the recruitment of at least 20,000 fresh graduates in the civil service in January 2021.
