By Libya Herald reporter.
Benghazi, 3 December 2016:
Baggage handlers at Labraq airport have gone on strike, stopping all flights, demanding their salaries be paid. They say they have not been paid for 11 months not paid.
They had been on a partial strike for the past couple of weeks, refusing to start work before 11am, but with no agreement from the Libyan Ground Services Company on the salaries issue, they went on indefinite srrike as of yesterday.
A national strike is looming. Handlers at other airports have not been paid either since the start of the year.
A fortnight ago, Misrata baggage handlers suspended their strike over the issue pending negotiations. They said that if there were no settlement by 15 December, they would go back on strike and it would go national.
The issue has been going on for well over a year. It is almost exactly a year since handlers at both Labraq and Tobruk airports ended a strike having not been paid for five months. They were then paid for a couple of months but after that, nothing.
The fault is not thought to lie with their employers, but with the Central Bank which, as with other state employees, has delayed or not made salary payments.
Meanwhile, flights in an out of Tripoli’s Mitiga airport have continued despite the past two days’ clashes in the capital. Reports that it had closed were untrue.
