A tremendous breakthrough in the fight for independent trade unions in Egypt, coupled with security intimidation.
The first provincial union branch for the “Independent General Union of the Real Estate Tax Collectors” has been established on the ground and officially declared in the Upper Egyptian province of Bani Sweif. This is the first independent union micro-entity to exist, since 1957, outside the framework of the state-controlled General Federation of Trade Unions.
The Bani Sweif tax collectors quietly carried out the elections, after an overwhelming majority endorsed the call for a free union. Nine union officers were elected, representing the nine directorates in the province, and held their first meeting on Sunday, 24th of August.
The state-backed General Union for Bank and Insurance workers has 11 union committees in the country’s 29 provinces. The only committee in Upper Egypt is in Bani Sweif, and it stood against the strike and does not enjoy any legitimacy. Though the participation of Upper Egyptians in the strike and the movement in general was of a lower profile compared to their northern brethren, as I posted before, things have started moving and the militancy is ascending, that ironically the first union committee is now established in the south before any other leading Nile Delta province. The Bani Sweif free union officers literally overthrew the state-backed union men, even holding the first meeting in the latter’s office, and took possession of the room keys. The management did not intervene. The free union officers agreed they will be holding their meetings regularly on the first Thursday of every month at 1pm.
State Security police has phoned up Abdel Nasser Abdallah, the elected treasurer and one of the leading strikers last December, summoning him to the Bani Sweif State Security Police office today. Abdel Nasser refused to show up, and there are concerns SS may raid his home. International trade unions and labor associations are urged to start opening channels and building contacts with Abdel Nasser and his colleagues to support their efforts.
