Bahrain Telecom Workers Fight to Save Jobs

Heba El-Shazli of the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center reports on the effort to gain justice for 44 fired telecom workers in the kingdom of Bahrain, located in the Arabian Gulf.

In late May, Bahrain Telecommunications Co. (Batelco), which provides the island kingdom’s national cell phone and Internet service, fired 44 workers. The workers were let go under a controversial “employment redeployment program” (ERP), which the Batelco Trade Union (BTU) successfully contested in court. While Batelco is appealing the verdict, the union is pressing for voluntary early retirement instead of the ERP.

Fathia Alsammak, one of the fired workers, told the Bahrain Tribune last week:

I had worked for 24 years and they gave us a paper telling not to show up for work. They cannot close the doors on us after years of service. I have a family, and at this stage of my life, it is difficult to look for another job in these times when inflation is high.

To mark the one-month anniversary of the firings, which the workers’ union says are illegal, the General Federation of Bahrain Trade Unions (GFBTU) members, political activists, members of non-governmental organizations and others will not use Batelco’s services for part of the day of June 29.

Says Kareem Rahdi, assistant general secretary of the GFBTU:

We consider this dismissal as a message. It’s the new liberalization that is taking place in Bahrain, which shows that jobs are not secure anymore. Because if Batelco can dismiss people like us, then what about other companies that are not making as much profit?

Four of the dismissed Batelco workers have pledged to go on hunger strike next week if the company still refuses to take positive action toward them. One of them, Sadiq Al Durazi, says he had no income and couldn’t buy food so a hunger strike reflects reality.

I say everything but no one hears me, so I must show them how it affects us.

The GFBTU also has launched a petition calling on Batelco to resolve the dispute of the dismissed workers or face a boycott by all those who sign. The petition is being distributed in all villages and areas where the dismissed workers live.

In April, after the court ruled against the ERP, the workers say Batelco told them to stay home on full pay until managers found them jobs in the company. However, on May 29, they were given two days’ notice that their contracts would be terminated. 

BTU Chairman Maki Abbas told the Gulf Daily News newspaper the employees are suffering while they wait on the courts. 

The people are suffering, with majority of them having loans from banks. We are advising them to try to postpone payments during this time. These are 44 families that have been dismissed and thrown away and no one knows their future. We need their (public’s) support. Their salary has been stopped, they can’t plan and Batelco is buying time and pressing them to accept the package and if this can happen in Batelco, it can happen elsewhere also.

According to Batelco, the ERP was offered to members of staff it deemed “surplus.” The company defended its position by saying it compensated the 44 workers well when it let them go. However, according to the BTU, the settlements are less than what they would have received on a previous early retirement program.

Bahrain is one of the few Arabian Gulf countries to allow workers to form unions. An AFL-CIO delegation visited Bahrain last year. In an important step forward for the Bahraini labor movement, the government adopted new legislation in 2002 that recognized workers’ freedom of association and lifted a ban on strikes for private sector, maritime and civil service workers. But in 2006, the government of Bahrain amended the original legislation with an edict that prohibits the right to strike across broad areas of the economy, including in bakeries and schools.

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