EDL Contract Workers Stage Another Protest

Electricite du Liban contract workers on Monday briefly blocked the road near the company's headquarters during a protest they held over an urgent draft-law on their full-time employment.

Speaking on behalf of protesters at the company's HQ in Mar Mikhael, Ahmed Shoaib said full-time employees should also participate in their sit-in.

The workers later said in a statement that their protests are “peaceful.”

They urged President Michel Suleiman and caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati to give them the right to become full-time employees.

“We are neither challenging politicians nor citizens,” they said.

The statement said the contract workers were “oppressed” but “will emerge victorious.”

“Because our demands haven't received any answers and because we won't remain silent ... we decided that today's (protest) becomes a (sign of) warning ahead of future measures,” it added.

The contract workers have been waging weekly protests since the urgent draft-law was put on the agenda of a parliamentary session along with 44 other articles.

But the legislature has so far failed to convene over the boycott of caretaker Premier Najib Miqati and several parliamentary blocs.

The draft-law has been proposed by Change and Reform bloc MP Ibrahim Kanaan, which the workers argue that it contradicts the agreement reached with Miqati's government when they lifted a 95-day sit-in last year.

The protesters said they were duped by Amal MP Ali Bazzi and Hizbullah lawmaker Ali Ammar, who they said collaborated with Kanaan in contradicting the six-point deal which ended their sit-in in August 2012.