The financial collapse of Gafsa Phosphate Company (CPG), a major phosphate producer –the world’s fifth largest exporter of phosphate– looms ahead. The protests of Gafsa’s residents demanding employment continue, leading to obstructed production and aggravated difficulties.

CPG is an historical asset for the country and the backbone of the Tunisian economy, but the halts in production—due to sit-ins and protests blocking production centers, washing stations and railway stations— have caused losses of up to two billion dinars (US $1.2 million) per day.

The financial collapse of Gafsa Phosphate Company (CPG), a major phosphate producer –the world’s fifth largest exporter of phosphate– looms ahead. The protests of Gafsa’s residents demanding employment continue, leading to obstructed production and aggravated difficulties.

CPG is an historical asset for the country and the backbone of the Tunisian economy, but the halts in production—due to sit-ins and protests blocking production centers, washing stations and railway stations— have caused losses of up to two billion dinars (US $1.2 million) per day.

Located in Southwestern Tunisia, Gafsa suffers from unemployment, marginalization and underdevelopment despite its contribution to the national economy. That has led its young men to pressure CPG which, they believe is their last resort for employment, especially since the revolution.

Sit-ins are to blame

CPG media officer, Ali Hoshati, says the fall in production from 8 million tons in 2009 to 2.5 million in 2010-2011 is due to sit-ins demanding employment in CPG, which is no longer able to receive more workers since the number of workers in 2012 amounted to 14,800, up from 5,000 in 2010.

 “The government does not do what it has to in terms of employment and development,” Hoshati explained. All of these reasons lead the unemployed to protest in many ways demanding employment in CPG.

Young men, who are angry due to unemployment and marginalization, are interrupting work at the phosphate production and transfer centers to exert pressure on CPG to employ them against silent government and local authorities. Hoshati ascribes the situation to the government’s inability to handle the disagreement between CPG and its social environment.

Hoshati warns that the sharp fall in phosphate production may force CPG to resort to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as it did in 1994, when it was forced to sack thousands of workers by giving them early retirement according to the structural reform program imposed by the IMF.

According to Hoshati, if the situation is to be repeated, the conditions, this time, would be harsher, due to the government’s weakness, the fragile security situation and the overstaffing percentage.

Closing the dialogue door 

Tunisia’s trade union does not believe that protests and sit-ins are mainly to blame for obstructing the production. It believes that closing the door on dialogue, on the part of the local authorities and the government and stopping the social negotiations are the main reason beyond pushing young men to protest, demanding employment and dignity, the very demands which ignited the revolution in the first place.

Unionist Adnan Haji, who is a member of the social negotiations, admits that obstructing the CPG is dangerous since the crisis has started to suffocate it. “The government is to blame for its indifference,” he said.

The government, says Haji, “prefers interrupting production to meeting the people’s legitimate demands” and believes that “it is the only one to blame for stalling the negotiations” which aim at resolving the problems of the Mine Basin area to rescue the CPG and give the area its rights.

Saleh Jadidi, member of the CPG’s university branch, believes that 2013 will be crucial to the CPG to regain its balance and resolve the crisis that the government and the CPG alike have helped cause in the first place.

Jadidi believes that CPG’s burdens should have been used to solve its problems. For example, the cost of transferring one ton of phosphate through railways is five dinars (US $3) but CPG uses trucks which cost 24 dinars (US $14.5) for each ton—amounting to a major savings when when hundreds of tons are transferred on a daily basis.

The blame game

Nawfal Mayofah, member of the Syndicate of the Chemical Complex – affiliated with CPG – also says the government is to blame since it has turned its back on the revolution’s demands, namely employment and dignity. He believes that it is refusing to listen to citizens, which make young men and people protest incessantly to achieve the revolution’s aims.

He goes further to say that the government’s unwillingness to find a solution adds to its burdens and “it is an introduction to declare the company bankrupt and sell it later on”. He thinks that the government is following the IMF’s dictates summarized in privatization, market economy and selling the whole country not only CPG.

Mayofah says CPG is partly to blame, explaining that although it has attracted a significant part of the unemployed, it has failed to find a final solution for the unemployment issue and that it has burdened itself with unprofitable projects. “Even the new appointees have been supporters of Ennahda Party,” he added.

The government says it is aware of the gravity of CPG’s situation and has therefore formed a ministerial committee to solve the outstanding issues. The committee has decided to provide the production centers with security guards.

CPG approved of the decision and called for implementing it immediately but the trade union rejected it, saying security involvement would worsen the situation and strike the right to protest and socially struggle. The union stressed the need to a rescue plan and a national dialogue involving civil society, the government and CPG. But just how long CPG will survive until that happens remains unclear.