The strike of public sector employees in Lebanon has led to a "real disaster" across all sectors, as essential transactions and paperwork for traders and citizens came to a halt. Here, the head of the Farmers and Agricultural Workers Union, Ibrahim Tarshishi, expressed his sympathy and understanding for the situation of public administration employees, stating in an interview with MTV: "I am wholeheartedly with them, and I know that their salaries are insufficient for their expenses, which could equal a tank of gasoline. We urge officials to do justice to them, but we also realize that we cannot endure such a strike, and we do not accept the prevention of exporting our products because this situation completely destroys the agricultural sector."
He added: "The concerned parties at the Ministry of Agriculture addressed the issue before we executed our escalatory steps, the most notable of which was the destruction of crops. An agreement was reached on a work mechanism that allows employees in the ministry to come for a few hours on specified days of the week, enabling work to proceed without obstructing the files."
He continued: "The export field has become tight for us; how will we manage with the repercussions of such a strike?!" Tarshishi rejects any strike that disrupts export transactions, emphasizing that "there is no country in the world where production export operations stop, and citizens' transactions are hindered due to a strike by employees. We are currently at the peak of production, and this concerns crops that require daily follow-up; otherwise, farmers incur significant losses, and that is what is happening."
Amid the deteriorating situation in the country, Tarshishi fears future strikes or "anything that could have repercussions on the agricultural sector and product exports, such as road closures and the non-arrival of ships at ports." He pointed out that "the strike of public sector employees has affected all sectors in Lebanon, and this is not good not only for traders and citizens but also for the state, the government, and the nation, as well as for the foundations of the state itself." He explained, "What has happened dismantles all institutions and sectors, and if they wish to return to such a strike, they are annihilating what remains of the agricultural sector and the hopes of farmers, which are already collapsing, placing them in a situation that is not enviable."
"It is as if we are in a phase of self-destruction," Tarshishi concluded. "This saying truly applies to us, as the state today is destroying itself and its people by its own hands!"
