{"id":27953,"date":"2019-01-03T23:22:55","date_gmt":"2019-01-03T23:22:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=27953"},"modified":"2019-01-03T23:22:55","modified_gmt":"2019-01-03T23:22:55","slug":"lebanese-trade-union-to-strike-over-pay-lack-of-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=27953","title":{"rendered":"Lebanese trade union to strike over pay, lack of government"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nBEIRUT: A major Lebanese trade union is to hold a general strike on Friday over living conditions and the political gridlock roiling the country.<\/p>\n

\nLebanon has no government eight months after an election, with rival parties fighting over Cabinet positions and Sunni representation in the country\u2019s sectarian power-sharing system. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\nThe gridlock has heaped further pressure on the country\u2019s economy, which is saddled with high levels of debt, and there have been protests about unemployment, taxes and living costs.<\/p>\n

\nBechara Asmar, from the General Confederation of Lebanese Workers, said the strike would last for hours and that there would be no street protests.<\/p>\n

\nEconomic bodies condemned the strike, saying it would inflict \u201csignificant damage\u201d on business because of its proximity to the Armenian Christmas Eve celebrated the following day.<\/p>\n

\nMohamed Choucair, the president of the Lebanese economic organizations, urged all firms to consider Friday a normal working day.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nPeople should continue to work and prevent further losses and \u201cprotect institutions, workers and the national economy so as not to incur heavy losses that the economy cannot afford,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\nHe also cast doubt on the objectives of the strike, adding the formation of the government remained the first demand of all economic bodies.<\/p>\n

\nPolitical parties were quick to meet with union representatives to understand the reasons for the industrial action.<\/p>\n

\nAsmar, following a meeting with the Progressive Socialist Party, said: \u201cThe strike aims to pressure for the immediate formation of a government and is not directed against anyone nor does it carry a message for anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nKataeb Party leader MP Samy Gemayel apologized for the hardships people were facing because of the political impasse.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe people are suffering and there are families that cannot afford fuel oil for heating. People are hungry and in pain, and the economy is on the verge of collapse. Is it acceptable for us to remain without a government because of the dispute over a minister?\u201d<\/p>\n

\nTourism Minister Awadis Kedianian, from the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) or Dashnak party, also met Asmar.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nThe minister said: \u201cForming the government would support Lebanon\u2019s presence on the global tourism map, and a delay in its formation would harm this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nARF was committed to supporting the public and refusing to commit to the strike implied indifference, he added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BEIRUT: A major Lebanese trade union is to hold a general strike on Friday over living conditions and the political gridlock roiling the country. Lebanon has no government eight months after an election, with rival parties fighting over Cabinet positions and Sunni representation in the country\u2019s sectarian power-sharing system. \u00a0 The gridlock has heaped further…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":27954,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}