1,500 workers protest closure of Morocco textile plants

SALE, Morocco — Around 1,500 Moroccan workers are entering the second month of a protest sit-in following the decision to close four textile plants, leaving them without jobs.

The workers, 1,000 of them women, have been staging their protest outside the factories in Sale, near the capital Rabat, since October 29, when officials of Mortanex, a subsidiary of Britain's Courtaulds, told them they were sacked.

Union representative Mouad Arroubi said, "The management told us they had submitted an application for liquidation with the business tribunal in Casablanca."

"We hope the tribunal will not grant it so that we can at least be compensated. The company has no debts and we had lots of orders," he added.

Workers said they suspected Courtaulds of wanting to transfer the plants which made women's clothing, to somewhere like China.

Courtaulds Textiles is now owned by Hong Kong-based PD Enterprise Ltd.

Textiles are a key industry in Morocco, representing around a third of the country's exports, but under the impact of the economic crisis the sector has lost between 15,000 and 20,000 jobs since 2008, according to industry figures.

One former Mortanex worker said that over the past two years they had agreed cuts in wages and working hours in an attempt to save their jobs.

Attempts to reach Mortanex for comment have been unsuccessful since the closure was announced.