Report of the Africa Coordinator of the International Mineworkers' Coordination

It is a zinc, silver and lead mine located in the Middle Atlas region (Khenifra province), with 300 miners organised in the central union, the Moroccan Labour Union (UMT). The working class of the jbel ouam mine has very severe working conditions, either from the point of view of safety (frequent fatal accidents) or from the point of view of wages and benefits in kind, forcing the miners to make repeated protests.

In 2019 a protocol agreement was signed with the management in the presence of the representative of the Ministry, which is why the miners did their utmost to achieve the production targets, but the management, instead of highlighting the clauses of the protocol, chose a policy of negligence, and the miners, desperate for trust, were forced to declare an open strike of 200 daytime miners and 100 miners who have been on sit-in for 6 days at the bottom of the mine at a depth of 700 metres. At this event many trade union organisations from different centres expressed their solidarity and support for the strike of the miners of Jbel ouam. The families find obstacles to feed the miners (food, water and medicines for the sick and especially the chronically ill). The claim book as I received it is as follows:

Wage increase, increase in the production bonus, increase in the housing allowance, increase in the heating allowance, increase in the retirement bonus, improvement of the conditions for joining the pension fund (CIMR: Marrocan interprofessional pension fund), increase in the capital for care, bonus for security guards, travel allowance as a subsidy for going on holiday, increase in the basis for calculating wages from public holidays and leave. Working conditions to improve health and safety are also called for. Dear comrades, the miners are continuing their battle with a very high morale within a movement of solidarity and support, and they have decided to continue the strike in order to demand their rights.

Please send statements of solidarity to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. we will be happy to forward them to the miners in Morocco.