Mubarak’s police crackdown on the Muslim Brothers continues. Twenty two Alexandrian MB activists have been rounded up on Sunday morning in the North Western Coast, and are currently held in State Security branch in Marsa Matrouh, with no access to lawyers.
Statement from Helwan iron and steel mills workers
I received the following statement from iron and steel mills workers in Helwan.
The statement, signed by the “Workers’ Consciousness Committee in the Steel Mills,” slammed the labor union bureaucracy, blaming the latter for failing to push for the implementation of the ministerial decrees, announced by Prime Minister Ahmad Nazif in 2006 and 2007 related to the bonuses and allowances. The statement warned this will result in a “wave of strikes in all Helwan companies. The minister hasn’t announced he revoked his decrees, still the management officials in the companies are objecting (to implement the decrees), and the unions are complicit.
“We demand a public meeting, attended by the head of the union in the company Salah Heikal, who attended already a similar meeting in the Light Transportation Company, but refuses to do the same in the Iron and Steel (Mills).
The Statement concluded by addressing the Factory Union Committee officials: “We call up on you today to implement the decree immediately, and stand on the side of workers. Tomorrow, there will not be anytime for more calls. The steel mills workers, just like the Mahalla workers, have the ability to achieve their demands without you.”
Sinai Bedouins fear losing homes
From Al-Jazeera:
At least 700 Egyptian Bedouins have protested over fears the Egyptian government plans to remove their houses from an area along the border with the Gaza Strip.
Hundreds of police surrounded the Sinai desert Bedouins as they set several tyres ablaze in the Massura area, on the main road between Rafah and the nearby city of Al-Arish in Egypt.
The demonstrations followed a visit two days earlier by local officials who surveyed land and houses near the border.
This prompted fears among Bedouins that an anti-smuggling measure, that has not been implemented to date, could be used to remove their homes.