About 650,000 Tunisians went on strike on Thursday to protest the government's refusal to raise wages amid threats from international lenders to stop financing Tunisia's tattered economy. Schools, universities, municipalities and ministries were shut and hospitals were on emergency staffing only in the nationwide walkout organized by the UGTT union, the biggest strike action in Tunisia in five years. Tunisia's economy has been in turmoil since autocrat Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was toppled in a 2011 uprising sparked by anger at unemployment and poverty. Earlier this month the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned Tunisia to keep its public sector wage bill - one of the world's highest in proportion to GDP, according to the IMF - under control to avoid severe debt problems. “The situation is very dangerous in light of growing inflation and low standard of living..the government will see soon a revolution of hungry and empty bellies,” said Nourredine Taboubi, the head of the UGTT. He said negotiations had failed because “the sovereign decision is not in the hands of the government, but of the IMF.”
