EDL Contract Employees Block Highway, Set Garbage Containers on Fire
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربيةElectricite du Liban’s contract employees blocked on Monday the highway near the headquarters of the company in Mar Mikhael and set garbage containers on fire, causing bumper-to-bumper traffic.
TV footage showed scores of employees standing in the middle of the highway, bringing traffic to a complete halt.
Some protestors also set garbage containers and tires on fire in a courtyard in the company HQ.
Almost half an hour later, they reopened the highway.
Earlier in the day, the employees closed all the entrances to the building after Energy Minister Jebran Bassil refused to meet with a committee formed by them to follow up their case.
Bassil called instead for holding a meeting between the protestors and the parliamentary administrative and justice committee to discuss their demands.
The minister condemned to LBC television the contract employees’ practices, saying that their actions reflect a minority of EDL’s workers.
“We are trying to find a solution to their problem,” he added.
“The employees know that we are not responsible for their current situation,” he stressed.
“I do not think that the contract employees will obtain their demands through such practices. We are improving their conditions from bad to good,” Bassil stated.
“EDL needs these employees,” said the energy minister.
The employees have been protesting for the past four weeks against the cabinet’s failure to approve their full-time employment.
Some employees have been contract workers for over 20 years.
To all you wheel burning mongols. People will listen more if you set fire to yourselves.
rudes .... focus more on the comment and not the commentator (or even none-commentators). I read what peace said and did not sense any accusations or even mention of either Bassil or Aoun. He simply made a statement that hiring the contract workers might be a solution. All the comments made above (by you and mowaten) have been non-offensive and sensible and they should hold true even if the Government was not M8 Government. Blocking roads and burning stuff is not acceptable practice no matter who is in Government (civil demonstration and expressing concerns peacefully are good forms of a democratic practices). After all we are all Lebanese.
thx helicopter, rudes you d better stop your paranoia syndrom...
if the minister says EDL needs them , then i repeat why doesn t he employ them? decades under contract, no pay if sick or absent, no security... you find it normal? that goes for all the administrations which exploits contract people for years... they all need reforms! didn t Emile Lahoud said that he wanted to reform the administrations? we are still waiting...
we know why nothing is done: corruption at all levels be it from M8 (amal has its hands on many public sectors for example) or M14...
here we go again.
we r not only committing crimes against humanity and each other. we r now committing crimes agaist environment. way u go lebanese
And to say that the tires business wasnt working well with some family friends of mine years ago, now it would be blooming with all those stupid people burning tires, polluting the country even more. Block roads with your cars or trucks find some better solution instead of damaging our country more that it is damaged already.. whatever the cause of this mess is.
I don't agree with burning tires and I don't support this primitive ape behavior, bass leich you don't object when members of your party does the same thing? Don't you have to be fair with your stances?
@helicopter, wow it is so nice to have a civilized non-biased and tainted conversation that benefits the country as a whole. Kuddos dude!
When cooler minds prevail, we find out that we have more to unify us than divide us. Thumbs up to all.
the same thing goes in education! some teachers are even paid and have no classes while others work under contract for years... how about thoses hired by the lebanese railroad which no more exists but are still employees of it!
many examples of public wasted money can be found but NO ONE M8 or M14 ever did something about it.. it helps some politicians to give work to their members as a service, those very same politicians who claim they want to fight corruption... !
the same thing goes in education! some teachers are even paid and have no classes while others work under contract for years... how about thoses hired by the lebanese railroad which no more exists but are still employees of it!
many examples of public wasted money can be found but NO ONE M8 or M14 ever did something about it.. it helps some politicians to give work to their members as a service, those very same politicians who claim they want to fight corruption... !