Jordanian teachers clash with police over wage demands

AMMAN, Jordan — Thousands of teachers protested in Jordan on Thursday to demand higher wages, some of them scuffling with security forces.

Organizers of the demonstration in the capital, Amman, said the government has yet to deliver on a 50 percent wage increase agreed upon in 2014.

“There was an agreement on this with the government, but the government backtracked on its commitment,” teachers’ union spokesman Noureddine Nadim said in a statement Thursday.

Security forces blocked roads and prevented most of the protesters from reaching the prime minister’s office, though some successfully skirted the cordon. The teachers gathered in different areas, chanting anti-government slogans and calling for an open-ended sit-in.

Some 3,000 teachers gathered near the Ministry of the Interior. Dozens of buses carrying protesters have been stranded around the capital, organizers said.

Organizers had called on teachers in other cities to protest at their schools if security forces prevented them from traveling to Amman.

The public school teachers’ union later called for a strike on Sunday.

One union leader, Nasser al-Nawasra, told AFP that public school teachers were “the lowest paid public officials.”

“I’ve been teaching for 24 years, and my salary doesn’t go above 760 dinars ($1,070)” per month, al-Nawasra said.

The government said in a statement that it is committed to dialogue with the teachers but that classes should not be interrupted and performance must improve.

“We respect the teachers and we salute their role and their mission, but the 50% increase demanded by the union will add JOD 112 million ($158 million) to the state budget,” Ministry of Education spokesman Walid Jallad said in a statement. Amman has faced economic troubles brought on in part by the hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees in the country.

The streets of Jordanian cities saw mass protests last year over spiking consumer prices.