Municipality workers in Karak, Irbid and Tafilah are on strike again.

Earlier this month, municipality workers across the Kingdom went on strike, demanding a raise, counting Saturday as an official day off, a savings fund with an end-of-service bonus, and equating them with workers in governmental departments.

The strikes went on for eight consecutive days, and they’ve resumed on Wednesday, October 31, after the government failed to meet all of their demands.

In Irbid, workers at 13 out of 18 local municipalities joined the strikes.

Meanwhile in Karak, dozens of municipality workers held up placards and chanted: “From north to south, we demand our rights.”

During the first round of strikes, Irbid suffered from a “smelly” few days, after rubbish from markets and stores piled up in the streets with no binmen to clean it up. People and the government are hoping that the same scenario does not repeat itself.

On Tuesday, October 30, the mayors of 26 municipalities across the country agreed to fix the day rate of binmen at the minimum rate of JD9.

No one can predict how long the second round of strikes will last, or if municipality workers in other Governorates will join their counterparts today or in the near future.