Fears prevailed that the strike of employees from the two cellular companies, Alfa and Touch, would directly impact the market and the citizens. Lebanon 24 website quoted sources saying that if the strike of the employees of the two mentioned companies continues, it is likely that the prepaid cards of one of these companies will be lost from the market by Friday.

One of the card sales agents in the market stated that the companies sell us the cards within a specific balance that is deposited in advance, but this could be affected if the strike continues significantly. We might witness a disruption of cards at any moment.

He indicated that the continuation of the closure of the companies' sales points would lead to not receiving the cards, noting that there is no storage capacity as was before.

The cellular employees had stopped working since last Monday noon until their full salary in fresh dollars is received and the collective work contract is signed.

The syndicate noted, "After more than 6 months of positive and constructive negotiation by the syndicate with all concerned parties on a new version for renewing and improving the collective work contract, and after more than 3 months since reaching a consensus between all parties to ensure the contract renewal in a way that preserves the rights of the sector's employees and its development, the syndicate gave deadlines more than once and dealt with the issue with full positivity and received several verbal and final approvals from the Ministry of Telecommunications and the administrations, however, the concerned parties are still procrastinating and delaying in the matter of granting the written and legal approval necessary for signing the work contract today rather than tomorrow."

The syndicate of cellular employees put all officials responsible for this issue "at their direct moral and legal responsibilities in wasting the rights of more than 1,400 employees along with their families, and attempting to affect the stability of the communications sector in Lebanon and the sustainability of its employees' work." It urged them "starting from the Ministry of Telecommunications to the administrations of companies MIC1 and MIC2, to the honorable Information and Telecommunications Parliamentary Committee, to intervene quickly to address the issue as soon as possible."

The syndicate announced "a complete halt of work, starting from noon today, Monday, February 5, 2024, until obtaining the necessary written and legal approval and the direct actual action immediately in the procedures of signing the collective work contract, which preserves the rights of all employees, without any infringement on their rights and gains, or it will be forced to resort to several escalatory steps, given the gravity of this issue, not to mention that the sector's employees, to this day, do not receive their salaries in their real value, and with the 2024 budget taxes soon to be published, their salaries will deteriorate more and more."

The Syndicate of Workers and Employees of Companies Operating the Telecom Sector announced in a message sent on Monday to the employees "a complete halt of work starting from noon today (Monday) until the correction of salaries and their full payment in fresh dollars along with signing the collective work contract."