MESOP : STRIKE IN SOUTH KURDISTAN

Teachers in Iraqi Kurdistan on strike for delay in receiving salaries

May 19, 2014 – SLÊMANÎ, Kurdistan region ‘Iraq’,— Teachers and the staff of the Directorate of Education in Slêmanî [Sulaimaniyah] province in Kurdistan Region announced on Monday, official strike in protest at the delay in the payment of their salaries for April and not setting a date for payment. One of the protesting teachers, Narin Othman said that “the strike was due to delayed payment of salaries of staff and education staff for April”.

The Kurdistan Regional Government KRG has demanded to solve this problem and consider living issues for employees and their obligations. The protests have announced sit-in strike of staff on Salem Street in the main city, which led to the closure of the street to traffic and pedestrians, confirming their continue in strike until paying their delaying salaries. The staff of Kurdistan complains from delays in the receipt of salaries since the beginning of this year after Baghdad cut the region’s share of the budget because of disagreements on the export of oil.

Kurdistan Region is suffering from financial scarcity that causes stop in paying salaries to employees, while officials in KRG, accused Baghdad of being deliberate in not paying the region ‘s financial allocations to pressure it in order to achieve political and economic gains.

Kurds say that Baghdad is applying the economic blockade policy and obscure their money to pressure them to abandon plans to export oil from Kurdistan Region directly to the world market via a new independent pipeline extending to the Turkish port of Ceyhan. For the past months people in Kurdistan region protest against the delay in salary payments. Since December 2013, Bagdad has suspended salary payments towards to Kurdistan due to the ongoing disagreement between Bagdad and Hewlêr [Erbil] on the issue of oil exportation. Baghdad has only sent salaries for January and February, while KRG has provided salaries to its employees only for March.