The Tunisian General Labour Union (, ''UGTT''. ) is a

national trade union center Organizers within trade unions have sought to increase the bargaining power of workers in regards to collective bargaining by acting in collaboration with other trade unions. Multi-union organizing can take place on an informal basis, or on ...

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

. It has a membership of more than one million and was founded on January 20, 1946. The UGTT is affiliated with the

International Trade Union Confederation The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC; ; ; ) is the world's largest trade union federation. History The federation was formed on 1 November 2006 out of the merger of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) a ...

and the Arab Trade Union Confederation. Author Safwan M. Masri has noted the influence of "notable intellectuals such as

Tahar Haddad Tahar Haddad (; 1899 – December 1935) was a Tunisian author, trade unionist, socialist, scholar and reformer. Haddad was born in Tunis to a family of shopkeepers and studied Islamic law at the Great Mosque of Zitouna from 1911 until his gradua ...

," among other early twentieth-century reformers and thinkers, on the development of labor power in Tunisia. In recent years, the UGTT worked together with three other organizations (the Tunisian Human Rights League-LTDH, the Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts-UTICA and the

Tunisian Order of Lawyers The Tunisian Order of Lawyers (, ) is a non-profit Tunisian organization and the bar association of the country. All lawyers in Tunisia are members of the Order, which does not belong to any political party. The headquarters of the Order are locat ...

), collectively labelled the National Dialogue Quartet, to address the national discord following the Jasmine Revolution of 2011. The National Dialogue Quartet was afterward announced as the laureate of the

2015 Nobel Peace Prize The 2015 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet (founded in 2013) for "its decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy in Tunisia in the wake of the Jasmine Revolution of 2011". The National ...

"for its decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy in Tunisia". Scholar

Joel Beinin Joel Beinin (born 1948) is the Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History and Professor of Middle East history at Stanford University. From 2006 to 2008 he served as director of Middle East studies and professor of history at the American Universi ...

has previously stated that the UGTT is "the single most important reason that Tunisia is a democracy today" (however, this statement was made prior to the coup of 2021). Safwan Masri contrasts the status of the union in Tunisia with the relatively disempowered labor organizations throughout the rest of the Arab world; in 2017, he observed that “UGTT has historically served as the umbrella organization for social movements in Tunisia, a role that is likely to endure."Masri, Safwan. ''Tunisia: An Arab Anomaly''. New York: Columbia University Press, 2017, 67.

Chairman (secretaries-general)

*1946–1952:

Farhat Hached Farhat Hached (; 2 February 1914 – 5 December 1952) was a Tunisians, Tunisian labor unionist and activist who was assassinated by ''La Main Rouge'', a France, French terrorist organization operated by French foreign intelligence. He was one of ...

*1952–1952: Mahmoud Messadi *1952–1954:

Mohamed Kraïem Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the monotheistic teachings of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, ...

*1954–1956: Ahmed Ben Salah *1956–1963: Ahmed Tlili *1963–1965: Habib Achour *1965–1970: Béchir Bellagha *1970–1978: Habib Achour *1978–1981: Tijani Abid *1981–1984: Taieb Baccouche *1984–1989: Habib Achour *1989–2000: Ismaïl Sahbani *2000–2011: Abdessalem Jerad *2011–2017:

Houcine Abassi Houcine Abassi (; born 19 August 1947), is a Tunisian unionist. Biography He was the Secretary General of the Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT) since 2011.

*2017–present: Noureddine Taboubi

References

External links

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Union to Union
Trade unions in Tunisia International Trade Union Confederation 1946 establishments in Tunisia Trade unions established in 1946 {{Africa-trade-union-stub