TUNIS (Reuters) – Rail, bus and air traffic stopped in Tunisia on Thursday after the powerful Tunisian General Labor Union (UGTT) staged a one-day nationwide strike to protest against the Tunisian government’s refusal to raise the salaries of 670,000 public servants. Tunisia is under pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to freeze public sector wages as part of reforms to help reduce its budget deficit. Tunisia’s state-owned airline Tunisair expects major disruptions to its flight schedule due to the strike and urged customers to change bookings. Tunisian Prime Minister Youssef Chahed said the strike would be very expensive but that the government could not afford to raise wages. Government and union sources told Reuters that the government had proposed spending about $400 million on pay raises, whereas the UGTT had asked for about $850 million.

Source: Egypt Independent January 17, 2019 09:22 UTC