Louisa Hanoune on Trade Union Freedoms: Between Facts and Political Exploitation

🗓️ Published on: 29/12/2025

The recent statements made by Louisa Hanoune,leader of Algeria’s Workers’ Party, have brought the issue of trade union freedoms back to the forefront of public debate. These statements were supported by striking figures that reflect the scale of repression faced by workers and trade unionists, particularly in the transport sector.

However, the gravity of these statements lies not only in the facts they reveal, but also in their selective nature, their overt political instrumentalisation, and their clear contradiction with the most basic trade union and legal principles in force in Algeria.

Shocking figures and an undeniable reality

Louisa Hanoune presented alarming data whose significance cannot be dismissed. She stated that thirteen workers and trade unionists from the railway sector remain imprisoned as a result of the strike of 26 November 2025, as of the time of writing.

She also referred to the arbitrary dismissal of more than 180 workers and trade unionists from the ports of Algiers, Oran and Mostaganem, carried out without any legal basis.

In addition, she highlighted the dismissal in 2024 of the Secretary of the National Federation of Port Workers affiliated with the General Union of Algerian Workers (UGTA), despite his trade union mandate, legal immunity and international representation. She further warned the authorities against independent trade unionists “taking over” this international representation, in what she described as the absence of any official representation before international organisations.

Targeting the Minister of the Interior while ignoring the real authority responsible for trade union protection

This is where a striking contradiction emerges. Despite explicitly acknowledging the existence of trade union immunity and its violation under Law 23-02 governing the exercise of trade union rights, Louisa Hanoune directed her attacks squarely at the Minister of the Interior and Transport, Mr. Saïd Sayoud. She accused him of orchestrating repression in the transport sector and of leading a plan to privatise Algerian ports.

According to many political and legal analysts, this line of attack reveals a fundamental legal inconsistency. The Minister of the Interior is not the authority legally responsible for guaranteeing or protecting trade union freedoms. His role, if any, is limited to enforcing the law, not regulating trade union activity or ensuring trade union immunity. These responsibilities fall exclusively under the authority of the labour inspectorates, which operate under the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security, headed by Minister Abdelhak Saihi. Many political actors consider him to bear the primary political and legal responsibility for the ongoing erosion of trade union rights in Algeria.

The Minister of Labour: the conspicuous absence in Hanoune’s discourse

The most glaring omission in the Workers’ Party leader’s discourse is the complete absence of any criticism directed at the Ministry of Labour and its head, despite the fact that this institution is legally mandated to protect trade union activity, enforce trade union immunity through labour inspections, and intervene immediately to reinstate workers dismissed for trade union reasons.

In this context, Raouf Mellal, President of the Trade Union Confederation of Productive Forces, stated during a special programme on North Africa TV :

Article 153 of Law 23-02 explicitly criminalises any obstruction of trade union activity and provides for prison sentences of up to six months in cases of repeat offences. Yet this provision has remained entirely unenforced due to the Ministry of Labour’s refusal to apply it, leaving trade unionists exposed to unchecked administrative abuse.

This raises a fundamental question, posed by the Confederation’s President:

If Louisa Hanoune, given her long political experience, is fully aware of this legal framework, why does she deliberately ignore the Ministry of Labour and instead direct her attacks at a minister who does not even have jurisdiction over trade union freedoms? This selective silence can only be understood as a politically motivated and personalised strategy targeting the Minister of the Interior.

Accusations of port privatisation and Emirati influence

With regard to Emirati influence in Algeria, Louisa Hanoune accused the Minister of the Interior and Transport of pursuing a plan to privatise the port sector, linking this agenda to the continued presence of Emirati interests in port-related projects. She went further by calling for the immediate expulsion of Emirati actors involved in these ventures.

 What is particularly striking is the timing of these statements, which coincided with the removal of businessman Chérif Eddine Amara, known for his close ties to Emirati influence networks, and with the Minister of the Interior’s immediate on-site visit to the Port of Algiers on 22 December 2025.

These developments reinforce the perception that Hanoune’s statements were not merely media interventions, but part of a broader pressure strategy within the corridors of power, potentially aimed at repositioning the Workers’ Party closer to decision-making circles should these pressures result in the dismissal of the targeted minister.

Double standards in the defence of trade unionists and victims of repression

In contrast to this vocal stance, Louisa Hanoune has remained conspicuously silent on other equally serious trade union cases. Chief among them is the case of imprisoned trade unionist Ali Mammeri, who has been sentenced to fifteen years in prison despite widespread international calls for his release.

 According to individuals close to Hanoune, she reportedly considers trade unions that maintain relations with the International Labour Organization and international human rights organisations as “out of line,” a position that serves to delegitimise independent trade unionists and contribute to their media and political marginalisation.

She has also ignored the cases of dozens of SNAPAP trade unionists prosecuted and dismissed in Béjaïa, as well as many seasonal workers and trade unionists dismissed after forming an independent union in the forestry sector. Similarly, she has made no reference to student trade unionists expelled from Blida University for striking, nor to resident doctors who remain imprisoned following their protest movement at the beginning of 2025.

These facts clearly demonstrate that repression in Algeria is not limited to the transport sector, as suggested by Hanoune’s focus on the Ministry of the Interior, but extends across all sectors without exception.

COSYFOP Statement in Three Languages Following Louisa Hanoune’s Statements

In response to recent political and media statements addressing trade union freedoms in Algeria, and in view of the selective and opportunistic exploitation of the suffering of workers and trade unionists that has accompanied them, the Trade Union Confederation of Productive Forces (COSYFOP) considers it necessary to clarify its position before national and international public opinion.

This statement is issued at a time marked by an unprecedented escalation of anti-union repression, when the effective exercise of trade union rights has been hollowed out, while a dominant political discourse has emerged that neither reflects realities on the ground nor acknowledges the true depth of the crisis.

COSYFOP observes with serious concern that the current debate on trade union freedoms is taking place in the complete absence of the independent trade union movement, which is subjected to systematic marginalisation and enforced subordination to those in power. Independent trade unions are denied their right to organise; their leaders are dismissed, prosecuted, forced into exile or imprisoned. Meanwhile, certain violations affecting trade unionists affiliated with the state-controlled union (UGTA) are openly instrumentalised to serve political agendas and settle internal power struggles.

These abuses have reached a particularly alarming level, to the point where even the Secretary-General of the state-controlled union (UGTA) is unable to freely express what is happening within his own organisation. This situation has led to the political instrumentalisation of the suffering of workers and trade unionists for purely political purposes, representing a dangerous deviation and an unacceptable practice from both a political and trade union standpoint.

In this context, COSYFOP firmly reiterates that the current anti-union violations in Algeria do not concern any single sector and cannot be reduced to the transport sector alone. They constitute a generalised offensive affecting all sectors and targeting workers and trade unionists without distinction.

Furthermore, COSYFOP unequivocally condemns all narratives and practices that seek to justify or glorify the sabotage of the right to strike by portraying it as an “act of citizenship,” as well as the use of trade union officials affiliated with the state-controlled union (UGTA) to oppose workers exercising their legitimate right to protest and to strike. Such practices amount to a direct assault on one of the fundamental collective rights secured by the labour movement through decades of struggle.

In this regard, the Trade Union Confederation of Productive Forces holds the Ministry of Labour and the labour inspection services fully accountable, both legally and politically, for the ongoing violations, as they are the authorities exclusively responsible for safeguarding trade union rights and ensuring the effective implementation of Law No. 23-02, particularly its provisions on trade union protec/tion and the criminalisation of obstacles to the exercise of trade union rights, which continue to occur with full impunity.

The continued obstruction of these legal mechanisms and the deliberate abandonment of trade unionists without effective protection reflect an official determination to silence trade union rights and render any political discourse on trade union freedoms entirely devoid of credibility

Accordingly, COSYFOP calls on the Workers’ Party, as well as all political parties that have addressed this issue, to fully assume their political and moral responsibilities, to put an end to selective approaches in the defence of trade unionists, and to commit unequivocally to defending all workers and trade unionists, without distinction between independent trade unionists engaged in the defence of human rights and those constrained by the limits imposed by those in power.

COSYFOP also calls for the opening of a serious, inclusive and balanced national dialogue on the real state of trade union freedoms, in which arbitrarily marginalised independent trade unions must participate, foremost among them the Trade Union Confederation of Productive Forces and its member organisations.

Finally, COSYFOP reaffirms its full readiness to cooperate with any sincere political or social force genuinely committed to restoring the right to free and independent trade union organisation and to ending abuses and judicial persecution targeting trade unionists. The trade union struggle in Algeria must not be treated as a temporary issue or an instrument of internal power struggles; it is a matter of fundamental and collective rights, directly linked to workers’ dignity and their legitimate right to defend their interests, and must never be subject to manipulation or instrumentalisation.

The Executive Committee

Download the statement in Arabic

Download the statement in French

Download the statement in English