Truck Drivers' Strike At Beirut Port Causes Delays In Cargo Deliveries

Truck Drivers' Strike at Beirut Port Causes Delays in Cargo Deliveries

A massive strike at Beirut port has caused partial delays in cargo deliveries, as truck drivers demand their wages be paid in dollars, a Sputnik correspondent reported Tuesday

BEIRUT (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th March, 2023) A massive strike at Beirut port has caused partial delays in cargo deliveries, as truck drivers demand their wages be paid in dollars, a Sputnik correspondent reported Tuesday.

Protesting drivers blocked one of the gates to the city port, staging a sit-down strike in front of it, thus disrupting internal logistics, the correspondent said. However, the work of the port has not stopped completely, though the closure of the gates and an accumulation of trucks led to delays in cargo deliveries to ships.

The sit-down was "a scream of pain and hunger of the drivers," Yasir al Rifai, a member of the Truck Drivers' Guild of the Port of Beirut, said.

"We will continue the strike until the owners of the trucks fulfill our demands, most importantly, agree to pay us in Dollars and provide us with health insurance," the workers' rights activist added.

The drivers are currently protesting in front of gate No. 14, but are prepared to block another one, gate No. 9, if their demands are not met, another striker told Sputnik.

Lebanon's national federation of workers' and employees' syndicates and the Truck Drivers' Guild of the Port of Beirut asked all truck owners and transport companies not to load vehicles and cold storage trucks on Tuesday, since it would be the day of a warning sit-down strike.

For the last three years, Lebanon has been caught up in a major financial and economic crisis, coming amid political and social tensions. Due to the almost complete paralysis of the Lebanese banking system, the national Currency has been exponentially devalued against the US Dollar, making a 100,000 to 1 trade at the black market. As a result, over 70% of the country's population are now living below the poverty line.