RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) - Palestinian civil servants, including teachers, announced Tuesday they would launch an open-ended strike Sept. 2, the first day of the school year, in another blow to the cash-strapped Hamas government.More than 165,000 Palestinians are employed by the Palestinian Authority. Of those, some 80,000 will go on strike, including 40,000 teachers and 25,000 health workers, said Bassem Hadaideh, spokesman of the civil servants' union. More than 80,000 members of the security forces will not join the strike, he said. The union has ties to the Fatah movement, Hamas' main political rival.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh called the strike unacceptable, saying such acts would create more problems for the Palestinians. He called on civil servants not to heed the call for the strike.
| Running a government sucks huh? Much easier just to blow stuff up. |
Fadel Kandil, a spokesman in Gaza for the teachers' union, said the workers are demanding back pay and a pledge that future salaries will be received on time. ``If the government can't resolve this, let others come,'' Kandil said.
| That almost sounds .. democratic. Almost. |
The union will hold two warning strikes on Wednesday and Thursday, Hadaideh said, adding that health workers would only deal with emergency cases throughout the walkout.