Tunisian General Labour Union
The Tunisian General Labour Union is a national trade [union center] in Tunisia. 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 and the Arab Trade Union Confederation. Author Safwan M. Masri has noted the influence of "notable intellectuals such as Tahar Haddad," 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, collectively labelled the Tunisian [National Dialogue Quartet|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 "for its decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy in Tunisia".
Scholar Joel Beinin has previously stated that the UGTT is "the single most important reason that Tunisia is a democracy today". 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."
Chairman (secretaries-general)
- 1946–1952: Farhat Hached
- 1952–1952: Mahmoud Messadi
- 1952–1954: Mohamed Kraïem
- 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
- 2017–present: Noureddine Taboubi