"We have decided to suspend the strike after a meeting with the finance minister who promised the demands will be studied and approved quickly by the cabinet," Fahhad Al-Ajmi, board member of the customs union, told AFP. The meeting took place Tuesday night and customs officers returned to work just before midnight, Ajmi said.
The customs officers, who stopped work for two days paralyzing the Gulf state’s foreign trade and threatening oil exports, were demanding a pay raise and improved working conditions.
The action severely disrupted air, sea and land transportation, leaving about 1,000 trucks carrying food imports stranded at border points. It also disrupted activity at Kuwait’s three commercial ports and only international airport. "All the customs employees have returned to work and movement is normal," Ajmi said.
The strike escalated into a political showdown between the government on one hand, and trade unions and opposition MPs on the other, after the government threatened to seek help to ensure continued supply of services.
The Kuwait Labor Union is scheduled to hold an emergency meeting later yesterday to study what it called the government’s "oppressive measures" against workers. Kuwait has been hit by a spate of industrial action in the public sector, which employs close to 80 percent of the 360,000-strong workforce of Kuwaiti nationals.
The country has about 1.7 million foreign workers, mostly employed by the private sector. Several other trade unions and Kuwaiti employees in ministries and government agencies have threatened to go on strike for better pay.
The Gulf state, with 1.2 million Kuwaiti citizens, is tax-free and offers a cradle-to-grave welfare system with public services and fuel either free or at heavily subsidized prices.
