ITUC calls for Palestinian Relief Agency to negotiate end to strike
Brussels, 29 January 2014 (ITUC) - The UN’s relief agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, should enter talks to end a 58-day strike of its employees, and donor
governments need to boost contributions to fill the agency’s funding gap, according to the ITUC. Two of 28 UNRWA workers
on a 30-day hunger strike were admitted to hospital on Monday, while thousands of people demonstrated in support in
Ramallah.
The strikers are asking for West Bank employees’ salaries to be lifted to the level of UNRWA staff in its other five
areas of operation and the end of a ban on employing any person who has been imprisoned in Israel. The prohibition
affects a large number of Palestinians, including people imprisoned without charge.
Some 4,400 Palestinians are employed in the West Bank's 19 refugee camps, providing health, education and other services
during a severe economic crisis with unemployment at some 20%.
“Just as talks are underway to seek agreement on a two-state solution in the Middle East, it is deeply regrettable that
some donor governments seem to be pulling back from the vital humanitarian mission of UNRWA for political reasons or due
to aid budget cuts. We call on them to help meet the UNRWA’s financial deficit, and we call on UNRWA to negotiate to
settle the strike instead of insisting that strike action ends before talks can begin,” said ITUC General Secretary
Sharan Burrow.
Burrow began talks with senior UN representatives on the issue last week in Davos. Handing over a letter from
Palestinian union centre PGFTU, she proposed that existing donors could bring forward funding commitments as an interim
measure, while efforts continue to restore previous funding and find new donors.
ENDS