Around 1,000 workers from Tanta Flax and Oil Company started a strike yesterday. The state-backed union officials are trying hard to coopt the strike and diffuse its militancy. Officials from the General Union of Textile Workers distributed Mubarak’s posters on the strikers and banners saluting Said el-Gohary, the head of the General Union, Labor Minister Aisha Abdel Hadi and Hussein Megawer, the head of the Federation.