Public transport was severely disrupted in Tunis on Monday following a protest by agents from the main tram and bus company, AFP correspondents noted.
Following the transport association’s appeal to the UGTT, the powerful trade union confederation, agents of the Tunis Transport Company (Transtu) demonstrated in front of the government seat at the Kasbah in the morning to denounce the late payment of their salary and the failure to receive the year-end bonus.
According to Transtu, this protest led to the suspension of “most services” of trams and buses in the greater Tunis area.
According to witnesses, it also caused huge traffic jams on the streets of the capital and its suburbs.
Transtu agents had already observed a strike in early November, in the middle of the local school holidays, a time when many families travel to the Tunis metropolitan area.
Transtu currently operates 250 buses and 15 trams and trains to connect the capital with the greater Tunis metropolitan area of more than 2 million people.
With a debt in excess of 100% of GDP on the brink of suffocation, Tunisia managed to get a commitment in principle from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a new loan worth almost $2 billion in mid-October, but is still awaiting final approval.
In return, the government has committed to reforms, the most important of which are a phasing out of subsidies on basic products, especially fuel and electricity, and a restructuring of public companies operating in many sectors (transport, water, energy, grain, medicines).
The country has also been plagued by serious political divisions since President Kais Saied’s coup that seized all power in July 2021.