Rabat – Morocco’s interior ministry issued a press release explaining that relevant authorities are ensuring that transportation services remain available for individuals amid national wide protests within the sector on the backdrop of skyrocketing oil prices.
Transport professionals’ labor unions have called for a nationwide halt of transit service for three days, March 7-9, protesting increased oil prices.
Reacting to the protest, the Morocco interior ministry said that protesting is a constitutional right but should not hinder citizens’ right to work and travel.
The protests denounce “Authorities disregard for calls for dialogue between labor unions and relevant authorities to reach reasonable solutions for the hydrocarbons rising prices,” explains a press release.
Last month, the Tangier Tangier-based Moroccan Association of Transport and Logistics (AMTL), a labor union, called on transport professionals to raise transport fees by 20%, citing the rise in diesel prices.
AMTL’s statement sparked an online uproar, with Moroccans taking to social to denounce the trade decision.
Soon after, Morocco’s competition council, the official market watchdog, announced that it will be investigating the calls. Under Morocco’s liberal market laws, prices are determined according to offer and demand principles. No single entity holds the right to fix market prices, as the president of Morocco’s competition council told Morocco World News.
At the same that the AMTL issued the memo, Morocco’s government stepped in to open dialogue with labor unions, causing the AMTL to retract their memo.
Despite the government’s effort to commodities, the current war in Ukraine is adding fuel to the already raging oil prices, with oil prices reaching record-high levels of over $100 per barrel.
As the west moves to sanction Russia, oil prices will likely increase even further.
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