Postal workers score partial victory

I met one of the postal strikers last night, to try to find out what happened earlier in the day.

The workers started their industrial action last Monday. Out of 350 temporary workers taking part, 95 used to stay and sleep over inside the building, demanding:

1- Job security contracts

2-Receiving the same salaries like their instated colleagues

3-Relocating job assignments to the places of residence of each worker. (Meaning, postal workers who live in Menoufiya wanted to be assigned to the Menoufiya postal service, instead of assigning them some other province without providing the adequate travel expenses.)

The workers occupied the ground floor of the Egyptian Postal Service building in Ramses, and faced intimidation and verbal threats from the management, local police, State Security, and the “Postal Security.”

On Thursday 8:30pm, the police mobilized troops to surround the building, and continued threats against the workers. Moreover, water and electricity were cut out later… and no restrooms were available…

“We almost died of thirst and out of the need to use the toilets,” said the postal workers. “I was running up and down nine floors in the building looking for any water taps. I could not find a drop.”

Around midnight, five workers were asked by the police to accompany them for negotiations outside the building: Badr, Ossama, Ragab, Ali, and Shehata. “They were seen as trouble makers, and the police wanted to get them out and pressure them,” said the postal workers. “They were taken to the Postal Building at El-Ataba, only to call us after three hours saying they signed the papers the police wanted, and that they were beaten up and had charges fabricated against them, without providing more details. Since then they’ve been avoiding my phone calls, and I don’t know details of what happened to them.”

“Another worker by the name Mina was also beaten up by the police outside the building on his way to get food, and was forced to sign the papers.”

“Central Security Forces did not storm the building. During the time of the Friday Prayers, around 12:45pm, a uniformed police general accompanied by Lt. Colonel, and at least 15 plainclothes agents came into the building. They threatened us we will not get employment anywhere for the rest of our lives, and threatened us with arrest. We were 65 workers by then. We were very tired, and dying for water and using the toilets. We decided to sign, as our resistance was breaking down.”

However, even with the tragic way the sit-in ended, the workers, we can say, have scored a partial victory… Out of their three demands, they managed to win two:

1-The management finally agreed to raise the temporary workers’ salaries to match those with contracts. For example the worker I interviewed used to receive LE250 as a basic salary, which was cut down to LE227 after the taxes. The bonuses used to be LE100, with LE10 deducted from them, and the net was LE90… So his total income used to be (LE227 + 90 = LE317)… Now, after the strike, it will go up to roughly LE750.

2- The workers achieved the third demand of relocating their assignments to their home provinces. Now they can go back and work where their families reside.

Now, what’s left is the job security… And while I’m sure there are those who got terrified by this rough experience, there are other workers who have been emboldened by it, and may resume the fight for job security in the future…