The Tax Collectors‘ struggle for independent trade unions is spreading by the domino effect, Sarah Carr reports:
Workers from the Ghazl El-Mahalla spinning factory have called off the sit-in they began eight days ago because, they say, the company trade union does not represent their interests.
The workers say that they plan to resign from the official, state-controlled trade union and form an independent union.
Negotiations over the course of the eight-day sit-in — staged in the headquarters of the company’s trade union committee — failed to reach solutions to the workers’ demands.
This is the second sit-in workers have organized after five workers were issued transfer orders last October.
The transfer orders were issued following a protest held at the Ghazl El-Mahalla factory on Oct. 31 during which some 800 workers protested mismanagement and alleged financial losses within the company.
The 22 workers who staged the sit-in demanded the revocation of the transfer orders and their return to their original posts as well as financial compensation for the transferred workers.