From Gulf News…
A week-long strike at Egypt’s biggest textile company may be over, but it is likely that similar events will unfold elsewhere, experts warn.
“These strikes will happen again unless workers’ conditions are drastically improved,” says Fouad Hashem, an economics professor.
“A comprehensive reform programme should be worked out to ensure that workers receive reasonable wages to cope with high inflation rates,” he told Gulf News.
Annual inflation rates in Egypt reached 8.5 per cent last August compared with 8.9 per cent in August 2006, according to a recent cabinet report.
An estimated 27,000 workers at the Misr Textile Company in Al Mahalla Al Kubra, some 130km north of Cairo, went back to work on Monday after going on strike for a week in protest of the low wages and increments.