Protests, strikes and growing demands by labor unions are threatening the government of Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri before it sees light.
The past week witnessed several protests organized by the Unions and Leagues of Land Transportation, which closed down roads ahead of its planned nationwide strike on August 2.
The head of the Unions and Leagues, Bassam Tleis, said the last strike was aimed at raising an objection to all the pledges made by Lebanese officials, including President Michel Aoun, the premier, and the ministers of interior and transportation.
Truck and taxi drivers are protesting what they say is inadequate government supervision of competition from non-Lebanese drivers. Other demands include that the interior minister stop issuing permits to trucks that weigh over 21 tons.
The drivers also want the police do more to stop taxis and vans from using fake license plates and the government to approve a public transportation plan.
Other demands threatening Hariri’s mission to form a new cabinet include providing better salaries to the staff of public hospitals, who have also held a strike to object the last pay raise approved by the government for public sector employees.
The strike of the public hospital workers, who claim that the salary hike did not treat them fairly, has paralyzed emergency services and the admission of patients except for those undergoing dialysis and chemotherapy or radiotherapy.
A hospital worker told Asharq Al-Awsat that the government’s policies are taking public health towards “destruction.”
Most professional doctors have abandoned their work at the Rafik Hariri University Hospital, which is on the verge of turning into a skeletal system with no functions, said the worker.
In the education sector, which has witnessed strikes for years, Lebanese University teachers have called for better salaries. Private school teachers have also been demanding for a salary hike after the government’s pay raise covered solely public school educators.
The strikes and labor union demands could have a snowball effect.
A minister, who refused to be identified, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the unions’ demands are “righteous.”
“They need swift solutions,” he said, lamenting the lack of a government capable of taking action.
He accused several parties of hindering Hariri’s efforts, saying “everything hinges on the formation of the cabinet which some are trying to paralyze.”
