In December 2002, around 50 teachers from 16 kindergartens in Zugdidi went on strike and held a protest in front of the district administration building.

According to Muradi Kavtaradze, deputy head of Zugdidi’s education department, the kindergarten teachers had not received their salaries for the past six months. He noted that Zugdidi governor Nugzar Antelava, who had met with the striking teachers a week earlier, had promised to pay them four months’ worth of salaries. The teachers, however, warned that if this promise was not fulfilled, they would escalate their protest by blocking roads and picketing the district administration building.

Later, it was announced that some of the kindergarten teachers had already received four months of back pay, while the rest would be paid in the near future.