Striking agistrates: overbid prior to difficult negotiations

Against ” the HAT’s lady of iron” of the HAT, the Union of Madagascar’s Magistrates (SMM) has to keep on standing tall and keep its nerves. Neither the administrative sanction nor the confiscation threats waved by the Justice minister proved to be enough to tame the judges. “The magistrates are no casual civil servants… They cannot be affected by confiscation “, replied the SMM. Led by its new president Augustus Arnaud, the union is holding to what has been decided in its general assembly: “we are carrying our struggle on, but we are ready to engage talks “. 
 
The SMM was granted no meeting with the dictating authority’s leader to address the issue. The magistrates are logically supposed to address the HAT, due to the very particular system imposed by the ruling power: Ambohitsorohitra is the single one making a decision concernin whatever public expenses over 200 millions of ariary. The magistrates’ claims are concerning the repay of judges’ wages. The union has been being convinced that the ministry has the necessary budget since the economy’s journal published a finance law still unofficially debated by that time.  
  
The SMM wants the HAT to promise to repay the magistrates’ wages. “It will take at least a proposal’s draft to stop the strike “, emphasized Augustus Arnaud. The Union’s president denied acting on political incentives aiming at destabilizing the HAT. “There is absolutely no political will to bring anyone down. It is a pure trade union issue, it is the mission assigned to me when I was elected, I am merely doing my job “.  
 
The Justice minister’s mission is, on the other hand, to master this strike. The HAT remembers that the Ravalomanana regime successfully mastered the magistrates’ union through sanctions. “They are trying to target the most vulnerable magistrates though these sanctions threats”, said the president of the SMM. The purely judicial argument produced by the HAT minister Christine Razanamahasoa didn’t convince her former colleagues. She mentioned a dimm reference to a certain Constitution and to the  civil servants’ statute while conceding that the judges were asking for the rights made theirs by their particular statute.  
 
The HAT is lurking behind the current inappropriate political situation in order to skirt around the magistrates’ claims. The dictating authority doesn’t want to concede that money is not available or has been used for a different purpose. Most of the unions are from now on refusing to buy the reinforced administrative control and the imposed HAT presidency’s check up as an excuses for delays. Only the general assembly allows the SMM to move back. Minister Christine Razanamahasoa was invited to attend a meeting  meant to address a potential solution with the magistrates. The iron lady already warned: “nothing will be earned by any strike, solutions only stem from talks”. Let us now see whether the SMM is willing to listen the HAT and to give up its rights.