"This is like 1967!"

Posted on By 3arabawy

After lending its hypocritical support for the 1000+strong workers’ strike at the Tanta Flax and Oil Company, located in Mit Hebeish (by Tanta’s southern entrance), the corrupt, state-backed General Federation of Trade Unions and the General Union of Textile Workers have instructed tonight the Factory Union Committee (FCU) members to suspend the strike action, saying the “problem was solved,” without presenting to the strike leaders any written agreement with the Saudi investor or the government.

Said el-Gohary, the head of the General Union of Textile Workers, according to one of the strike leaders present in the meeting, told the FCU members to immediately disband the industrial action, “verbally telling us we’ll get the bonuses and an increase in the food allowance, without any mention of the return of sacked workers, or the future of the company under this Saudi investor who has sucked our blood. The company has to go back to the public sector or they should leave it for us to run it. And above all that, he (Gohary) asked us to thank the (Labor) Minister and Hussein Megawer (head of the federation) for their ‘efforts!'”

One strike leader exploded in Gohary’s face: “You know Naksset ’67?! This is like Naksset ’67!” referring to the 1967 defeat in front of Israel which has become only second to doomsday in Egyptian slang when describing a catastrophe.

I spoke with two FCU members on the phone as they were heading back to Nile Delta. There was so much noise in the car. People were shouting  and arguing in anger. They were clearly unhappy. I could hear in the background one interrupting an FCU member while speaking to me about details of the meeting, asking him nervously “who’s that you are talking to over the phone?!” The other strike leader answered: “It’s Hossam el-Hamalawy.” I could hear the other guy’s hysterically screaming: “TELL HIM THE SCANDAL! TELL HIM THE SCANDAL!” followed by more noise in the car and a fluctuating mobile phone signal.

“We will update everyone in the factory tomorrow morning, and it will their decision,” said the FCU. “If the suspension of the strike is refused, we will continue no matter what.”

The two strike leaders I spoke with are clearly against the suspension, but my sources also confirm there are severe divisions within the ranks of the leadership at the moment. Some have become tired after 72 days of striking in the middle of nowhere in the Nile Delta, besieged by the police and banned from media coverage, and steadily financially drained, thanks to the Federation.

What is the balance of power at the moment? It is not clear. It will be settled tomorrow morning on the factory floor… The strikers will have the last word…

My heart and thoughts go out to the brave men and women workers of the Tanta Flax and Oil Company…

Real Estate Tax Collectors to stage a national strike

Posted on By 3arabawy

Via Al-Masry Al-Youm English Edition:

Egypt’s property tax collectors are starting an open-ended strike on Tuesday, protesting the Finance Ministry’s decree by which a project for a social welfare fund was commissioned to the state-backed union instead of the independent union that enjoys the support of the majority of the ministry’s civil servants.
The tax collectors had organized a “warning protest” Thursday in front of the parliament, but received no official response.
“We informed the (Finance) Minister with our demands and we’re waiting for a reply by the end of tomorrow,” said Abdel Qader Nada, secretary general of the independent Union of Real Estate Tax Authority employees. “If our demands are not met, we will demonstrate everywhere on Tuesday.”
Last Thursday’s protest included demonstrators from seven governorates, but this Tuesday’s strike would cover 27 governorates, Nada added.
Tarek Moustafa, a Qalyoubeya tax collector and the independent union’s treasurer, asserted the “strike isn’t going to end until our demands are fulfilled. The last sit-in that was two years ago lasted for 12 days in the winter, so what would prevent us this time from staying until we get what we want?”
Kamal Abu Eita, president of the independent union, said on Thursday rights organizations and international labor unions would support Tuesday’s strike. “We will receive a response,” he was certain.
When contacted, the Finance Ministry refused to comment claiming that “Ministry of manpower and the trade unionists are the ones in charge of the fund issue, but not the Ministry of Finance,” according to Ahmad Abdel Razek, director of the Finance Minister’s Assistant’s Office. “The Finance Ministry’s role was limited to issuing the decree of the fund’s establishment out of the members’ (state-backed union) membership fees. Anything else is not our responsibility.”
Aisha Abdel Hadi, Minister of Manpower and Immigration was not available for comment, while her office director, Nahed el-Ashry, refused to speak saying: “Sorry, I don’t prefer interviews with press.”
Egypt’s property tax collectors had staged national protests in 2007 that culminated with a 12-day sit-in in front of the ministerial cabinet headquarters in downtown Cairo. They roughly raised their salaries by 325 percent, thanks to the strike, and went on a year later to found Egypt’s first independent trade union in half a century. Their union was recognized by international trade unions like Public Service International, and saw more than 35,000 local tax collectors joining its ranks, out of a total of 55,000.