EDL workers' and employees' syndicate prolongs strike

BEIRUT — The syndicate for workers and employees of state-owned power provider Electricité du Liban on Tuesday issued a statement extending to March 22 the strike it started on March 9. Announcing the extension, the syndicate said it is “waiting for responsiveness and positive tangible changes that take into consideration the syndicate’s demands,” the state-run National News Agency reported.

Here’s what we know:

    • The syndicate announced that they would continue to “strike and protest, barring entry to EDL’s centers and only allowing employees to enter” for the duration of the strike. The activities interrupted exclude those which, if interrupted, would constitute a danger to public safety and include “conducting examinations of the general grid” and “receiving or depositing fuel.”

    • “[EDL] is hiding from the government and from public opinion its true condition, and the cause of its collapse and that of the [electricity] sector on different scales,” the statement said.

    • The statement added that the “[energy] minister and the [EDL] management and board of directors” are “entirely responsible for everything that’s happened as a result of their lack of response to the [syndicate’s] demands.”

    • The call to renew the strike included a reiterated list of demands, which included “pricing [EDL employees and workers’] salaries using the same mechanism as that used for [private electricity] service suppliers,” “guaranteeing full medical coverage and insurance” for workers and employees,” “stopping the violation of [EDL’s] authorities and permissions” and “activating contract penalties against [private electricity] service suppliers that failed to accomplish their missions.”

    • A new list also includes “paying salaries in cash in order to avoid the humiliation workers and employees face at banks’ doors.”

    • The syndicate had launched a weeklong strike last week to protest the “indifference” displayed by authorities to its demands. The EDL workers’ and employees’ protests started in early March and have often included the syndicate’s objection to expanding the powers given to private electricity service suppliers, specifically distribution service providers.