UNRWA workers strike amid cash flow crisis

By Qais Abu Samra
GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) – Workers at the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) on Monday staged a one-day strike over the agency’s refusal to meet their demands.

The strike covers the five areas where the refugee agency operates; the West Bank, Jordan, Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria.

Abdel Karim Hajj Mohamed, spokesman for the UNRWA employees' union in the West Bank, warned that workers will begin an open-ended strike as of Thursday if the employees' demands are not met.

"The (Monday) strike is a warning and for one day, and in the event that the demands are not met, we will start an open-ended strike on Thursday,” Mohamed told Anadolu Agency.

The spokesman explained that the strike aims at pressuring UNRWA to retract from its decision of “exceptional leave without pay for all employees, under the pretext of financial deficit, and the return of the annual bonus with retroactive effect."

He accused the UNRWA administration of "managing its financial deficit at the expense of its employees."

On July 28, Lynn Hastings, the deputy special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, said UNRWA was going through a cash flow crisis.
UNRWA provides its services to about 5.3 million Palestinian refugees.

Established in 1949 by the UN General Assembly, UNRWA's mission is to help Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip achieve their full human development potential, pending a just and lasting solution to their plight.

*Writing by Ibrahim Mukhtar