The EDL building in Beirut was badly damaged by the Aug. 4, 2020 port explosion. (Credit: Joseph Eid/AFP)
BEIRUT — The Electricité du Liban workers' union called on its members to stage sit-ins on Thursday and Friday at all of the public utility’s institutions after a meeting Tuesday to protest the lack of renovations to its headquarters in Beirut and the increased powers granted to private electricity service suppliers “at the expense of the workers,” the state-run National News Agency reported.
Here’s what we know:
• The union’s first point of contention was the delay in renovating EDL’s headquarters after it was damaged by the Aug. 4, 2020 Beirut port blast “to secure a place that is suitable for employees and that is appropriate for providing services to citizens, before the onset of winter.” The union had on Nov. 15 discussed the renovation with Energy Minister Walid Fayad, who “had promised the restoration would take place within days” and “not weeks,” the statement comments.
• The union also expressed disapproval over the “expanded powers granted to private electricity distribution companies (DSPs)” which comes at “the expense of EDL workers.”
• The statement called on the supervisory board in charge of DSP contracts at EDL to “remember that they are members of the EDL workers’ union,” advising them to “resign from the board rather than to submit to detrimental decisions under pressure from the private sector and the Energy Ministry.”
• The workers’ union had called for the formation of a ministerial committee charged with investigating the performance of DSPs, which they describe as having “failed tremendously to achieve their goals.”
• EDL’s most prominent DSP contracts are shared between three companies: KVA, BUS and NECU