The Public Administration Employees' Gathering issued the following statement: "After the call for a comprehensive strike which has escalated to include the port and the section related to the Ministry of Agriculture, and after the responses from the administrations and colleagues in the Ministry of Agriculture, we learned that a heated debate occurred within the government group between the Minister of Economy Amin Salam and the Minister of Agriculture Abbas Haj Hassan. This followed Minister Salam's request to pressure employees of the Ministry of Agriculture to inspect a shipment of wheat at the Port of Beirut, while Minister Haj Hassan refused, considering that the strike is a sacred right for employees guaranteed by law and that the matter should be approached through solutions, not pressure.
We ask the Minister of Economy why there is insistence on the wheat shipment at a time when there are shipments and ships of cattle, fish, and food supplies docked and awaiting inspection, in addition to thousands of tons of potatoes and other imported or exported products? The debate raises several questions:
- Is only wheat a threat to food security, or do all these shipments constitute a real crisis that should be viewed from the standpoint of responsibility?
- Are we facing pressure that could lead to the lifting of the strike?
It is necessary to warn against the use of pressure tactics on employees in any facility for any reason; otherwise, the reaction may be unpredictable."
