BEIRUT:
Striking contract workers at Electricite du Liban briefly blocked the road
outside the company and set fire to trash dumpsters Friday to protest its
decision to resume bills collecting.
The
workers’ protest over the past three months has obstructed the work of the EDL
and the collection of electricity bills has been on hold since then.
The
sit-in has also caused a division within the government, as relations between
Energy Minister Gibran Bassil of the Free Patriotic Movement and Speaker Nabih
Berri and Hezbollah have deteriorated in the past few months due to the ongoing
standoff over full-time employment at EDL.
While
Berri and Hezbollah have supported hiring the contract workers, Bassil argues
that it would be disastrous for EDL to employ more than 2,000 contract workers
and has instead suggested their transfer to private service-providing
companies.
With
EDL’s decision Thursday to send out its employees next week to start collecting
electricity bills under the protection of the police, the crisis is likely to
deteriorate further.
A
member of the contract workers’ committee, Ahmad Shoueib, said that contract
workers would decide Monday on how to confront the EDL’s “escalatory measures.
They have already taken on all the bills from the company’s third floor ... we
will all be here Monday to respond,” said Shoueib.
Escorted
by the police to avoid any confrontation with contract workers, EDL staff
transferred all the electricity bills out of the headquarters earlier Friday.
Contract workers arrived at the scene and engaged in their spontaneous protest,
burning tires on the road and setting fire to the contents of dumpsters.
The
developments came one day after several hundred FPM supporters marched from
Ashrafieh to Mar Mikhael, where EDL is located, to protest against the sit-in.
Friday,
Beirut MPs criticized the FPM march and said it was illogical for the party to
organize a protest in Ashrafieh when their officials are senior ministers of
the government.
“We
call for a demonstration outside the residence of the energy minister because
the political party he belongs to has been controlling the ministry for four
years and they have led us to the current electricity situation,” said Beirut
MP Michel Pharaon, following a meeting of the lawmakers for the capital, who
are from the opposition March 14 coalition.
Pharaon also said that
residents of Ashrafieh did not participate in the rally called by the FPM.
“What we saw yesterday was part of a greater political fraud,” said Pharaon.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Politics/2012/Jul-28/182360-edl-bill-collection-move-sparks--disorder-by-contract-workers.ashx#axzz21tl8qNMp
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