AEA to strike overconflict with GAM

AMMAN — The Agricultural Engineers Association (AEA) on Monday announced holding a strike, which is to take place on August 28, as a response to the "unfruitful discussions" with the Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) concerning the association’s demands.

“The municipality has 36 of our members registered under different work titles doing various jobs, but they have not been getting paid or even recognised for their work,” Abdelhadi Falahat, the AEA’s president, told The Jordan Times.

The strike comes after a number of protests by the association this year, including the latest strike taking place on June 26 for similar demands. 

On its website, the AEA stated that the June strike was organised because of “the municipality’s refusal of listening to its AEA workers”.

According to the association’s president, the choice of August 28 as the date of their next strike is a way to give the municipality and the association “a last chance to reach a compromise”. Besides, the date was set after Eid Al Adha as “a courtesy for everyone to enjoy their break”, he noted.

Discussions between the association and the municipality have been going on for two months, led by City Manager and Engineer Omar Al Louzi. However, they failed to result in a solution pleasing all sides, causing the AEA to give the municipality an ultimatum of either meeting their demands or dealing with a strike.

Despite repeated attempts by The Jordan Times, GAM denied providing a statement in this regards, yet acknowledged that the two-month long discussion period had taken place. 

"We will not deny that the municipality is right in the sense that these members have joined the municipality in ways that are outside the normal system, but, since they are now official workers, then they deserve to be on their payroll,” Falahat said.

 “It is not our members’ fault if the system is flawed. This is just the first of many steps, and we will continue down this road until our members’ rights in the municipality are granted," he concluded.