Al-Jazeera staff announce 1-day strike over pay, conditions

CAIRO – 28 April 2018: Staff at the Qatari-owned Al-Jazeera English TV channel plan to carry out a one-day strike on May 9 over a pay dispute and bad working conditions, Guardian reported on Saturday.

Staff of the London-based Al-Jazeera English explain that the wage talks with the company have deteriorated. “We’ve had an agreement with the company for three years on pay and they’ve never honored that. We’re devastated to be walking away from the jobs we love, but we’ve been left with no choice,” Brian Ging, senior field producer at Al-Jazeera Media Network, told Guardian.

“We’ve been very patient,” said Ging, who also serves as deputy president of the National Union of Journalists, added.

Guardian cited that union officials expect a huge staff turnout at the strike, adding that programs run on the channel daily from 4 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. will likely be halted due to the announced strike.

The report further added that the unions’ officials expressed their readiness to sit down with the company’s side to mend fences if the latter showed seriousness to end the dispute.

Closure of Al-Jazeera was one of the most substantial demands listed by the Arab countries that have been boycotting Qatar since June 2017.

Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain hit Qatar with a complete boycott over siding with Iran and sponsoring terrorist figures and groups that are proven to be responsible for carrying out terrorist attacks in the region.

Since then, Qatar has resisted conciliation attempts and has not shown any effort in disassociating itself from the terrorist groups that the quartet claims are harbored and financially supported by Doha.