SCC's Protests Fall on Deaf Ears as Gharib Calls for 'Great Day'

The Syndicate Coordination Committee held another protest on Monday as its open-ended strike entered its fourth week to press the government into referring the wage scale for the public sector to parliament.

At the protest held near state-run telecom operator Ogero in Beirut's Bir Hassan neighborhood, Head of Public Secondary School Education Teachers Association Hanna Gharib said the funding of the wage scale “should come at the expense of the rich and not the poor.”

The government is deadlocked on finding ways to fund the salary scale that it approved last year. But the SCC is demanding a swift decision and referral of the bill to parliament for adoption.

Gharib warned the Economic Committees, a grouping of the country's businessmen and owners of major firms, not to stand in the way of the government.

The Committees have warned the cabinet not to approve the funding, saying any such measure would inflict major losses on the public and private sectors.

But the SCC, a coalition of private and public school teachers and public sector employees, has vowed to hold daily protests near government institutions to pressure the government.

Gharib urged teachers, students and their parents to join the SCC in a protest it plans to organize near the education ministry at 10:00 am Tuesday.

The students and their parents will “join our battle” on that “Great Day,” he said.

He told demonstrators that the government should complete discussions on the funding of the wage scale so that the process takes its course on March 21 during which the SCC will organize the “Great March."

According to An Nahar daily, the cabinet could discuss the matter before March 21 to pave way for its approval during a session on that date.

President Michel Suleiman, who is scheduled to travel to Africa on a several nation tour and returns to Lebanon before March 21, had promised to resolve the funding crisis starting that date.

Also Monday, SCC protesters held a sit-in near the vehicle registration authority in Dekwaneh.