Speaker 1: On This Day and Working Class History. The sixteenth January
Speaker 1: and on the sixteenth of January twenty eighteen, a series
Speaker 1: of strikes began in Benin against government plans to ban
Speaker 1: strikes by public sector workers. The move came as the
Speaker 1: state attempted to crack down on protests against free market
Speaker 1: education and health reforms. First, workers in hospitals, schools, and
Speaker 1: courts walked out for three days. Then on the nineteenth
Speaker 1: of January, Bernin's Constitutional Court declared part of the law
Speaker 1: unconstitutional and the strikes spread. The government responded by cutting
Speaker 1: the pay of strikers, but the strikes continued, and eventually,
Speaker 1: in late March, the government reversed course on the pay cuts.
Speaker 1: From early May, the strikes began to wind down, and
Speaker 1: most unions had returned to work by the end of
Speaker 1: the month. The sources maps and all of our anniversaries
Speaker 1: each day. Check out the on This Day's section of
Speaker 1: our stories at at stories stopworkingclasshistory dot com, and if
Speaker 1: you value our work, support us at Patreon dot com
Speaker 1: slash working class History. Links in the show notes. Theme
Speaker 1: music by A Decado. See you Tomorrow,