KUWAIT CITY, March 18: It has been four days since the strikes started at the Kuwait Airport and there appears to be no let off as yet. The  airport customs officials, among the nearly 3,000 on strike all over the country, started their action four days ago while Kuwait Airways Corporation (KAC) employees joined them on Saturday.

Nearly a dozen flights were cancelled on the first day and nine more on Sunday as all the customs and KAC employees maintained that their demands have not been met since September and October of last year, when similar strikes broke out.

The workers’ demands remain the same; an increase in salaries and benefits in accordance with the calculations which have been conducted, and which the government agreed upon previously in response to the October strikes, but failed to implement. Strikes like these have risen up all over Kuwait over the past year or so, and the government has claimed that it is under strain and cannot afford the demands for increases under the current circumstances.

Demands
Marzouk Jarallah Alshraifi, Vice-Chairman of the Workers Union of Kuwait Airways told the Arab Times that “the demands are divided into three segments; a thirty percent increase in salaries, which would cost an annual sum of KD 7,631,000. The second demand is the allowances to be given to workers in their respective corporations and foundations; these allowances are worth very little, and as such they have been slightly and intermittently raised. The cost is approximately 4 million per annum. The third demand is concerning the civil service clauses. There are about four civil service clauses; clause 27 of the year 2006, which has to do with engineers, lawyers and accountants. There is also clause 28 of 2006, regarding check-in employees, and clause seven of 2010 concerning certificates of higher education such as masters and PhDs. In addition, there’s clause eleven of 2011 concerning those without cadres, which were applied in the public sectors but not for Kuwait Airways employees.
“There has been an agreement between us and the board of directors under the supervision of the Minister of Transportation, Salem Al Othainah, to contract an agreement, and all of these demands were authenticated. The institution completed 90 percent of the demands inside the airways. The external demands regarding legitimization and service functions are the demands which are currently suspended. We decided to give them a month to implement the changes, but given the current situation and the change of the Council of Ministers and parliament, we gave them five months. We expected that the council for civil services would extend the decision, but we were sadly surprised that they were extremely removed from our demands, and as such a date was set for strike based on the public consensus of the Workers Union of Kuwait Airways.”

The strike has all but paralyzed Kuwait’s imports and exports costing the government millions of dinars and hiking up vegetable prices to an unprecedented high. Meanwhile, up to 111 flights have been cancelled, but Kuwait Airways customers have stated that they can either be reimbursed, have their flights changed or fly with a different airlines.

As the demands are the same, there have not been any negotiations, but HH the Amir is currently in session discussing the matter with the Council of Ministers, and a reply is due soon. “Striking is simply a means of getting the message across to the government that they need to commit to the agreement which was consented to between us”, continued Alshraifi, stating that “the main motivation is the same one assumed for all institutions in all countries; that these salaries should be studied and compared, for example, with the salaries in the different sectors, and also, to be compared to the different airways of the remaining Gulf countries, which are the closest to us. But unfortunately, these comparisons and studies do not take place except in the case of a strike. And the studies have taken place during this period, and they’ve found that the salaries of Kuwait Airways employees are much lower than their Gulf counterparts.”

Kuwait Airways employees have claimed that their demands are one and the same, and that they are simply asking for what they have been promised. Aviation engineer Abbad Al Douqi stated that it is “essential for there to be a sense of respect for an agreement and a signature. If the Minister of Transportation himself can’t do what he promised, then we have a huge problem and it’s disastrous. We’re hoping that within the next few hours there will be a solution.”

Agencies add:
The recent strike by government employees and the issue of salary increase were the main items of discussions during the weekly Cabinet meeting, chaired by His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah here Sunday.

Speaking after the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, said the Cabinet discussed a report by the Civil Service Commission (CSC) with regards to salary increases requested by several public sector institutions, adding that the Cabinet was informed on the CSC approval of such requests. The Cabinet, said Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid, was also informed about the strikes held by a number of government employees, focusing on the causes of the issue and means to overcome it. He noted that the Cabinet respects the needs of such individuals and encourages them to pursue their rights via official channels. However, actions that led to disruption of work were in contrast to Article 26 of the Constitution, which stated that public jobs were considered national obligations, said the minister, adding that actions which lead to harming the public interest were not appreciated.

Dialogue, the minister reiterated, was key in solving problems facing such employees and those refusing to engage in such discussions were only committing wrongful acts against the public interest.
Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled affirmed that the Cabinet had reviewed the CSC approval of salary increase for government employees and it would take the necessary steps that would lead to the welfare of the public. He noted that the Cabinet deeply thanked the youth who volunteered to work during the strikes; thus, reflecting their true patriotic sentiments, adding that now the government and the CSC were working on measures to ensure everybody’s rights.

A government committee was established under the chairmanship of the HH the Prime Minister to look into the issue at hand.

During the meeting, the Cabinet also reviewed letters sent to HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah by world leaders and high officials. His Highness the Amir received letters from President of Chad Idriss Deby, President of Benin Yayi Bomni, President of East Timor Jose Ramos Horta, and Former British prime minister John Major, which all focused on issues of bilateral relations and means to bolstering them.

A letter sent by President of Peru Ollanta Humala to HH the Amir, included an invitation to partake in the third Summit of South American-Arab Countries (ASPA) to be held in Lima, Peru, during Dec 26-29, 2012, was also reviewed.

A letter sent by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to HH Sheikh Sabah was also reviewed by the Cabinet with the letter including an invitation to attend Brazil’s Rio De Janeiro conference during July 20-22, 2012. The Cabinet was briefed by HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak on the recent visit by his Iraqi counterpart Nouri Al-Maliki, which focused on means to bolster bilateral relations.
A briefing was also provided by First Deputy Premier and Interior Minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Humoud on the results of the 29th meeting for Arab Interior Ministers that was held in Tunisia. The Cabinet also expressed its deepest condolences over the death of Egypt’s Pope Shenouda III, 89, hoping that Egyptians would overcome this tragic happening. Recent developments within the Arab and international spheres were discussed during the Cabinet meeting.

Meanwhile, the striking workers have threatened to expand their industrial action demanding pay rises that has already resulted in several flights being cancelled.

The airline’s employees, who began their strike late on Saturday, are demanding a raise of 30 percent.
The government has just granted rises of 25-percent to officials and employees of state enterprises.