Ogero employees began their strike on Tuesday. (L'Orient Today/PHB)
BEIRUT — Internet services that were out on Wednesday in many parts of the country appear to have returned on Thursday because of renewed state electricity to service stations, a source at Ogero told L'Orient Today.
Employees of the state-owned telecommunication company Ogero started an open-ended strike on Tuesday to demand better wages. The syndicate for Ogero employees held sit-ins on Wednesday in front of telecoms centers as many parts of the country experienced internet outages the same day, the state-owned National News Agency reported.
The Ogero source, who is involved in the strike, told L'Orient Today on Thursday that Wednesday's outages were probably due to shortages of fuel for generators. The reason the network had come back online was likely "because state electricity must have returned," the source added.
Workers are reportedly still on strike, however.
"All the workers are on strike and no one has fixed anything," the Ogero source said, noting that the workers' syndicate is planning to hold a meeting on Thursday to decide its next steps.
Caretaker Telecoms minister Johnny Korm claimed Thursday to have worked out a preliminary agreement with Ogero’s employees union, Wednesday. “A preliminary agreement has been reached to ensure the operation of Ogero’s main centers,” he told Leabnon’s National News Agency (NNA).
Korm explained that “any change in spending [on Ogero] is solely the prerogative of Parliament, which could approve it in the draft budget, or of cabinet, where the prime minister could grant an exceptional agreement for this purpose,” according to the NNA.
The caretaker minister stated that responding to Ogero workers’ demands is not among his prerogatives. He also deplored how the strike is affecting essential institutions like Banque du Liban and commercial banks, which is causing a delay in the payment of public sector salaries, including those of Ogero workers.
Employees of the two mobile telecommunications companies in Lebanon, Alfa and Touch, also held a strike last Thursday through Sunday demanding higher salaries. The head of the Mobile Employees Union, Marc Aoun, told L’Orient Today that the union had suspended its strike for 48 hours starting on Thursday after the employees, workers' syndicates, and the management of the two companies negotiated and shook hands on a “deal.”
Aoun said he preferred not to disclose the contents of the deal to avoid compromising its passage at the ministerial level.