Mild unionist rejection of decree decreasing minimum wage while CGTL condone it

Reacting to the initial deafening silence of the Lebanese trade unions regarding the recent decree lowering the minimum daily wage (full news: : http://lkdg.org/ar/node/15441) , Al Akhbar newspaper wrote yesterday that the above decree laid bare the workers unions and syndicates allegedly boasting to represent the working classes, amongst them, the Independent Trade Union, the Teachers’ trade union and the National Federation of Trade Unions of Lebanon, and Al- Wafaa trade union. These groups, the newspaper noted, have expressed their rejection in individual and weak statements. In this regard, the Independent Trade Union issued on July 20 an invitation to participate in the National Day of proportional representation, in which it affirmed that the decision to cut the minimum daily wage was not a good presage, calling on the Minister of Labor, Sej3aan Azzi, and the Lebanese government to revoke it. As such, the trade union of teachers, expressed during a visit to Azzi on June22, its rejection of the decree as well as its justification, while questioning the silence of the General Confederation of Lebanese Workers (CGTL). For its part, the National Federation of Trade Unions of Lebanon, issued a statement yesterday, in which it described the cut as a clear attack on workers and a violation of international agreements rights. On the subject, the vice president of the General Confederation of Lebanese Workers (CGTL), Hassan Fakih, told Al Akhbar that the CGTL was not a party in this matter, and said: “daily workers should have acted in the first place and we could have supported them.” He went even further by defending the above measure when he considered it as a “simple procedural matter and a legal and logical adaptation to some extent,” while generally reiterating its opposition to daily worker contractual relations. The Syndicate of Employees and Workers of Restaurants and Hotels in Lebanon, which embraces a large number of daily laborers, expressed reservations over commenting on the decree at the present time, noting that the syndicate president was abroad and did not study enough this matter. Likewise, the director general of CGTL, Saad el Din Hamidi Sakr, dismissed the issue, while talking to Al Markaziya electronic portal, while stressing that Lebanese workers are "going through the worst times amidst an ailing economy and stagnation, adding that “the present situation was exasperated by fierce competition in the labor market from Asian and Syrian workforce.”. (Al Akhbar, Al Diyar, July 26 and 27, 2016)