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Libreville – Strikes in schools, hospitals and in private business, along with a drop in vital oil revenues, have brought turbulent times for Gabon’s President Ali Bongo Ondimba.

Rallied by a score of trade unions in the public sector, teachers and health workers have stayed off work since the beginning of February to press home their wage claims, prompting the administration to dock pay.

In weeks of rowdy negotiations, the strikers’ representatives have made no concessions to the government of the densely forested equatorial African country, which benefits from plentiful oil reserves as well as tropical hardwood.

Teachers’ unions have threatened to write off the current academic year for students if the government refuses to meet their demands for a substantial rise in the minimum monthly salary from 80,000 CFA francs to 300,000 CFA francs.

“The government shot itself in the foot by deciding to cut the wages of striking staff,” said a leader of the movement, Marcel Libama.

“This pointless tactic won’t affect our determination to pursue the struggle for our country. Classrooms have remained shut,” he added.

“This [school] year can no longer be salvaged.”

In rejecting the teachers’ claims, the government argued that to comply would mean a spending hike “from 680 billion CFA francs [approximately $1.1 billion] to 2,500 billion CFA francs per year . . . which is insupportable for the smooth running of the state.”

But as so often in Gabon, the last word lies with the president, whose role it is to mediate during such clashes, though critics hold him primarily responsible for social discontent.

Ali Bongo has ruled since a disputed presidential election in August 2009. The poll was held within three months after his father Omar Bongo died in office after leading the country for no fewer than 41 years.

On March 10, Bongo called for classes to resume, asserting that he had met the main demands of the strikers.

According to his spokesperson Alain-Claude Bilie By Nze, the president agreed to performance bonuses and the introduction of a “new pay scale”.

“We want something concrete!” countered an unimpressed maths teacher, asking not to be named.

“What does it mean, ‘to revise the pay system’? Are they going to raise our basic salary, yes or no?” – AFP