SIDON, Lebanon: Police used force Thursday to disperse workers and factory owners blocking the main highway between Sidon and Tyre in south Lebanon to protest against the government’s failure to repair electricity cables.
The five-day power outage, due to electricity workers' recent decision to stop all maintenance work, caused a total blackout in Sidon’s industrial zone, security sources told The Daily Star.
The protesters burned tires, blocking traffic in both directions between the two main coastal cities for several hours Thursday morning before police unblocked the vital road by force, the sources said.
The blackout, which grounded businesses and factories for the past five days, occurred after the main cable supplying the industrial zone south of Sidon caught fire.
Striking EDL contract workers had adamantly refused to answer queries to repair the cable, paralyzing work at dozens of factories, the sources added.
EDL contract workers said last week they will stop all maintenance work across Lebanon, cautioning that it might result in major power disruptions.
Until then, the contract workers were carrying out maintenance and repair work on the electricity network despite their three-month long strike over labor issues. Their decision to escalate their protest was meant to prove that their work was essential for the country to function.
Many of the contract workers' critics accuse them of being lazy, but the workers say they are tired of being taken for granted.
EDL’s contract workers have been on strike and camping out at the company’s headquarters since August to demand full-time employment. They have been employed by three private service providers since 2012, and the companies’ contracts will end in 2016.
The strike started after EDL announced it would only employ 897 of the nearly 2,000 contract workers.
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