The Arab, African, International representatives of the PSI have accepted the membership of Egypt’s Union of Real Estate Tax Authority Employees.
Mabrouk! Now the Free Union has won local and international legitimacy. More to come. Embrace the domino effect.
Sarah Carr reports:
Fourteen months after they forced the government into responding to their demands for better pay, real estate tax collectors have formed Egypt’s first independent trade union since 1957.
“I feel happy and honored to be part of such an initiative,” Tarek Mostafa, one of the founders of the Union of Real Estate Tax Authority Employees (URETAE), and now its secretary general, told Daily News Egypt.
“I feel that I am serving my country. The existence of free unions improves the country’s image internationally and I am proud to be part of that,” Mostafa continued.
On Tuesday, tax collectors gathered outside Cairo’s Ministry of Manpower as URETAE leaders handed paperwork concerning the establishment of the new union to Minister of Manpower Aisha Abdel Hady.
Outside, tax collectors chanted slogans denouncing the state-controlled Egyptian Federation of Trade Unions (EFTU), as they had during their historic 11-day sit-in in December 2007.
The General Union of Bank, Insurance and Finance Employees (part of the EFTU) was opposed to the strike-action carried out by tax collectors in 2007. Workers in various sectors say that EFTU’s undemocratic structure and pro-government appointment policies result in their having to battle with their employers, the government and their own union during industrial disputes.
Tax collectors responded to the General Union’s intransigence by forming the higher committee for the property tax collectors’ strike, led by the charismatic Kamal Abu Eita, which mobilized thousands of tax collectors.
Rather than disbanding when the government conceded to their demands (awarding them pay rises of over 325 percent) tax collectors began collecting signatures in support of the formation of a free union. Abu Eita is now URETAE’s president, and over 30,000 of the real estate tax authority’s 50,000 employees have joined the union.
Tax collectors announced URETAE’s formation in December 2008.
Mostafa was quick to point out that the Ministry of Manpower does not have the right or power to stop URETAE’s formation.
“There is no such thing as approving or disapproving when it comes to the formation of independent unions. This is a common misconception. The ministry is only entitled to approve or disapprove the terms outlined in their proposal, but cannot challenge the idea as whole,” Mostafa said.
URETAE’s lawyer Haitham Mohamadein explained that under Law 35 on trade unions issued in 1976 the government has 30 days to challenge the establishment of the union by lodging a court case.
After meeting Abdel Hady on Tuesday, however, Muhammadain’s feeling is that the Ministry of Manpower will not mount a challenge.
Mohamadein added that technically, EFTU could also oppose URETAE’s formation.
EFTU and its controversial president Hussein El-Megawar have made concerted attempts to discredit URETAE and persuade the Ministry of Manpower not to deal with it. URETAE’s victory therefore represents a significant loss of face for Megawar.
Attempts to reach Megawar for comment failed.
“EFTU could challenge URETAE’s formation but to do so would be a huge public relations blunder and would make EFTU look really bad; URETAE has large numbers of members and has established itself,” Mohamadein explained. Such is their confidence; URETAE’s leaders are now turning to the business of finding a headquarters and issuing membership cards.
The handing over URETAE’s papers on Tuesday was a historic and significant step in a country where blocs of independent, non-government power are tightly controlled.
It marks a victory for Egypt’s labor movement, revived after the success of the December 2006 strike in the state-owned Ghazl El-Mahalla spinning factory, which is credited with setting in motion the hundreds of protests and strikes Egypt has witnessed since then.
Writing in the December 2008 edition of Britain’s Socialist Review, journalist and activist Hossam El-Hamalawy suggested that the URETAE’s establishment would have a “ripple effect.”
“Cracks are expected in the state-backed General Federation’s body if the property tax collectors succeed in launching their free union. This should have a ripple effect in the Egyptian political arena. The establishment of independent union federations has been in the heart of the political transformation process in former dictatorships like Poland, South Korea, South Africa and others.”
Mostafa is optimistic that URETAE’s example will inspire other workers.
“This initiative will pave the way for future initiatives in the same direction because while Egypt has liberalized the economy it has yet to free workers.”
–Additional reporting by Heba El-Sherif.
I was invited yesterday for a chat about internet activism over tea with Muhammad Abdul Qudus, the head of the Press Syndicate’s Liberties Committee, who wanted to discuss social media and how bloggers can help solidarity campaigns with detainees, etc. Though I’ve known Abdul Qudus for years through activist events, demonstrations, which he hardly misses any, I had never gone to his home before.
What took my breath yesterday however was his flat. I never knew he lived in the same Zamalek apartment that belonged to his dad, the legendary liberal writer Ihsan Abdul Qudus (1919-1990), whose novels and movies I was addicted to in prep and secondary school years.
Abdul Qudus took me on a tour in the apartment after we were done with our chat, showing me his dad’s office, library, handwritten notes, old fantastic black and white photos of Ihsan and his mother Fatma el-Youssef, personal items like Ihsan’s tin cup that he used during his imprisonment in the military prison in 1954 and which he insisted on keeping as a reminder of his first encounter with the “revolutionary regime,” beautiful paintings including a self-portrait by Salah Jahin, framed sketches and cartoons of Ihsan as depicted by Egypt’s most high profile cartoonists. I also saw the young Abdul Qudus’s “trophies” which include the massive gate chain of Cairo U which was smashed and “confiscated” by anti-Gulf War protesters in 1991.
We went from room to room, saw where virtually all the cultural symbols of royal and republican Egypt came to chat, party, drink, celebrate and fight, including Om Kolthoum, Farid el-Atrash, Abdel Halim Hafez, Salah Jahin, Souad Hosni, and, and, and, and. Name one writer, actor or painter and Abdul Qudus will be quick to mention a story about him related to that home.
I left the house in euphoria.. It was like watching Egypt’s history running in front of u on a filmreel. It was a blast from the past. That house needs a proper photoshoot, and I’m thrilled Abdul Qudus has already given me the permission to do so. I hope I manage to do that sometime soon.