BEIRUT: The Union Coordination Committee announced Friday that it would prepare to escalate measures after the holidays to protest Parliament's failure to pass their long-sought-after wage hike.
Mainly led by teachers and unionists, the UCC said that it would re-launch contacts with parliamentary blocs in an effort to begin reapplying pressure to pass the 121 percent salary scale increase after its "desire for a calm start to the academic year was not reciprocated by the political class.”
If politicians prove to be unresponsive, then the committee will escalate its measures after the holidays.
"We will not push for street [protests] now because there is no need for them at the moment," committee member Elie Khalifeh said during a press conference.
The powerful committee has become famous in Lebanon for its more than three years of large street demonstrations calling for wage hikes.
Over the summer, teachers boycotted the correction of official exams to pressure the legislature into endorsing the salary hike.
Education Minister Elias Bou Saab responded to their refusal to correct the exams by handing out passing certificates to all students who sat for official exams, a move that outraged the teachers who accused the minister of seeking to undermine them.
The UCC is pushing Parliament to approve a 121 percent pay raise for public sector workers and teachers.
Lawmakers were at loggerheads over the salary scale with some groups insisting on a draft law that would create a balance between revenues and expenditures, given that the new wage hike is expected to cost the state some $1.6 billion a year.
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