The meeting that was due to take place today Thursday between the strike leaders and the Finance Minister was postponed again. This time the strike leaders were told they would be contacted by the ministry on Sunday to be notified of a meeting date.
There’s a feeling among the strike leadership that the minister is try to dodge implementing the rest of the demands. On their part, the leaders renewed their threats of staging another sit-in on 9 January.
One of the films I watched back in California, and was very touched by, is one made by a Japanese visiting scholar, Masako Sakata, on the devestating effect of Agent Orange, used widely by the US forces in Vietnam during the war.
In the case of Masako, the film was literally a personal requiem as the tragedy was to touch her personally, with the passing away of her husband, a US Vitenam war veteran-turned-photographer and anti-war activist.
Around 250 workers (out of a total force 450) from Efco Food Industries are continuing their sit-in which they started two days, in Suez, demanding:
1-Their annual shares of profits which they haven’t received from 1999, the year the company was founded
2-Food allowance or a meal, as the workers are given neither
3-Health insurance, especially as industrial safety procedures is almost non-existent according to the workers, who say accidents and severe injuries (which lead to the amputation of limps) are common in the workplace.
4-Night-shifts allowance (badal wardeya): The company’s factory in Ataqa, Suez, operate 24/7 on three successive eight-hour daily shifts. The night shifts should have a higher pay than the morning shifts, but the company are paying flat rates.
5-From the total work force of 450, only 150 workers have contracts. The protesters are demanding contracts and job security
6-A worker by the name Fathi Afifi will be interrogated by an administrative penal board. The workers are demanding this move by the management to be revoked.