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Burkina Faso unions demand gov't action on claims

Xinhua, May 25, 2016 Adjust font size:

Burkina Faso's United Union Action (UAS), the umbrella group of six labor union bodies and 16 autonomous unions, on Wednesday demanded that the government take action on fulfilling commitments.

"We are in the situation of glass half full or half empty," the UAS's rotating chairman Guy Olivier Ouedraogo said during meeting with the press on Wednesday in the capital Ouagadougou.

He said this following the frustration of trade unions as the government failed to fulfill its different commitments five months after taking up duties.

"Without any doubt, there are progresses that have been made on some of our concerns and which remain to be materialized", Ouedraogo explained.

"But on other concerns, there is some dissatisfaction due to the absence of deadline or due to vague answers," he added.

In mid April, unions in Burkina Faso threatened to paralyze the country with a series of strikes.

Beginning in May this year, Prime Minister Paul Kaba Thieba drew the attention of the unions on the aftermath of the strikes and said this fact was leading the country "straight to disaster."

"One cannot rule a country when everybody goes on strike. The overbid that we are experiencing leads us straight to disaster," the prime minister said in his state of nation address before the Parliament.

According to Ouedraogo, after rounds of talks with the government, consensus has been found on some points of the claims, especially a decree carrying the processing methods and the terms of the liquidation of payroll deduction for participating in strikes.

However, he lamented that there has been no positive response from the government about workers that were victim of the destruction of their work tools during October 2014 popular insurrection, about rental cost reduction claims and about the setting up of a unique file for land transaction.

Ouedraogo said correspondence has been sent to the ministry of public administration in order to question him on the remaining points.

"In case the government is not meeting favorably our grievances, we shall assume our responsibilities together with all workers," said Ouedraogo. Endit