More on labor union elections

Posted on By 3arabawy

I received the following report from journalist Jano Charbel, who’s been monitoring the General Labor Union elections.

Indirect General Trade Union Elections & Calls for the Independence of the Egyptian Workers’ Movement
The representatives of Egypt’s 23 almighty general trade unions were determined on November 20 – through indirect elections in eight of these unions, and through predetermined results (without elections) in fifteen others.
The results for over 315 general union seats, out of a total of 483, were determined by default – without competitive elections. Thus, more than 65% of the general union council representatives were neither directly, nor quite democratically, elected.
The representatives of the eight remaining general unions were determined through indirect elections that were either partially-contested, or openly-contested. Therefore, fewer than 168 representatives (less than 35% of the total seats) were actually elected – even then, indirectly so. Amongst these eight unions, the most contested elections were those for the General Union of Maritime Transport Workers & the General Union of Railway Workers.

Ali Mansour Qassem, an aged council member, who had served several five-year terms in the General Union of Textile Workers, said “we didn’t have elections this year; the 21 members of our general union council were determined by default. We had 21 candidates for the 21 seats – so we didn’t need to hold any election since there were no competitors. We knew the results by November 16 – so we didn’t have to wait for the elections on November 20.”
Qassem added “I chose to give up my council seat to one of my NDP colleagues. We have no opposition currents within our general union, all our council members are from the NDP.”
Indirect & Unrepresentative Elections
General union elections are indirect in the sense that ordinary unionized workers, at the local level, cannot vote for their representatives in their respective general union. Only elected local union council members can vote, or nominate themselves or others in general union elections.
In contrast, the electoral process for Egypt’s professional syndicates (journalists, lawyers, accountants, physicians, etc.) is more direct and representative. For example, members of the local Lawyers’ Syndicate in the Assiut Governorate are entitled to vote for their representatives in Assiut-Branch Lawyers’ Syndicate Council – and are also entitled to vote for their representatives in the (Cairo-based) Lawyers’ General Syndicate Council.
What makes the general trade union elections all the more indirect is the fact that local union council members may nominate other candidates to run for their respective general union – even if those candidates were not elected by workers on the local union level! Therefore, unelected and unrepresentative individuals may make their way to the top of the union structure, by skipping the most basic level of elections.
The Powers of the Disconnected, Unrepresentative, and Almighty General Unions
According to Trade Union Law 35/1976 and its amendments, it is only the general unions and the Egyptian Trade Union Federation/ETUF Council that have legal personality – local trade unions are merely their subjects.
By law, each and every local union committee must affiliate to their respective general union – according to the specific industry in which they operate. It is illegal to establish or organize independent trade unions outside the strict confines of the state-controlled national union hierarchy.
Article 7 of Law 35/1976 stipulates that “the union structure shall be pyramid-shaped and shall be based on the (obligatory) unity of the union movement.” Furthermore, the provisions of Law 35 dictate that union powers shall be concentrated at the apex and the center of the pyramid.
Domestic trade union legislation and labor laws grant the 23 general unions far-reaching powers including – control of strike funds, the authorization of strikes, authority to issue/deny certification papers to local union candidates, penalizing and expelling local-level unionists, amongst a host of other administrative powers.
How have the general unions utilized all these powers? First of all, strike funds are frozen assets in the hands of the state-controlled general unions; not a single strike has been authorized by any general union in the history of the union movement (although thousands of “wild cat” strikes, sit-ins, and protests have been conducted at the local union level – without authorization;) and the general union council members have refused to grant certification papers to well over 16,000 local union candidates – especially not to opposition, independent, and competing candidates.
Alternatives to Government-Controlled Unions
Over the past few weeks university students, disillusioned by interference and vote-rigging in their student union elections, have established a “Free Students’ Union” in the Universities of Alexandria, Al-Azhar, Helwan, Cairo, Ain Shams, and Al-Mansoura.
The establishment of these “Free Students’ Unions,” which operate in parallel to the official student unions, were proposed by opposition students – especially those from the Moslem Brotherhood (whose candidates are said to have won an overall average of about 50-60% in the various FSU councils.)
The Brotherhood has spoken of replicating this experiment with the workers’ movement. However, the idea of establishing independent trade unions was not first proposed by the Brotherhood; leftist & independent unionists as well as labor activists have, for many decades, been calling for independent and democratically-elected trade unions that are freely organized outside the official ETUF structure. In fact the Brotherhood is not proposing the establishment of independent trade unions.
The Moslem Brotherhood’s Labor Affairs Coordinator, Saber Abul Fotouh, said “we are calling for the establishment of independent workers’ organization – not independent trade unions. We are not talking about parallel trade unions.”
“The Egyptian State is party to the International Labor Organization’s Convention #87 (Freedom of Association & Protection of the Right to Organize) which states that trade unions have the right to organize freely,” said Abul Fotouh.

In fact, Article 2 of ILO Convention # 87 stipulates that “Workers and employers, without distinction whatsoever, shall have the right to establish and, subject only to the rules of the organization concerned, to join organizations of their own choosing without previous authorization.”
The Egyptian Statehas also voluntarily chosen to ratify a host of other labor and human rights conventions which safeguard trade unions’ rights to organize independently – yet the Egyptian State chooses to disregard those trade union rights that it doesn’t wish to see enforced.
Abul Fotouh added “we want to organize workers in both the public and private sectors. We expect that the NDP and the government will move to suppress our efforts, as they did during the (FSU) student elections. It is for this reason that we call upon all political forces to participate in our efforts.”
Indeed Labor Minister Aisha Abdel Hady and ETUF President Hussein Megawer have both made announcements to the effect that legal measures shall be taken against anybody attempting to establish parallel trade unions or organizations outside the framework of the ETUF structure.
The Tagammu, Wafd, and Nasserist Parties, together with the Revolutionary Socialists, have offered differing levels of tentative support for the Brotherhood’s calls – although the Tagammu Party also denies that it is coordinating with the “Outlawed Moslem Brotherhood.”
Commenting on the proposals for the establishment of independent/parallel unions, the Director of the Center for Trade Union & Workers’ Services, Kamal Abbas, said “the calls for establishing parallel or independent unions/organizations has ushered in a sense of optimism amongst the Egyptian trade union movement.”
Abbas added, “However, the presence of the Brotherhood and the Revolutionary Socialists within the trade union movement is very minor, so I don’t believe much will result from their calls for free trade unions.” Indeed the Brotherhood’s presence in the blue-collar trade union councils has historically been weak – although their presence and influence in the white-collar professional syndicates has been immense.
Abbas went on to say that Egypt needs “representative, democratic, and independent unions. These latest union elections have proven that the ETUF is a tool in the hands of the state; these elections have also revealed that general unions do not represent the will of the workers – especially given all the interventions on the part of the Labor Ministry, security apparatuses, and the ETUF leadership.”
The “elections” for the 23-member Egyptian Trade Union Federation Council are scheduled for November 27.

Ayoub released!

Posted on By 3arabawy

Ayoub (Ramy Siyam) was released in the early hours of the morning, after bloggers and political activists in Sharqiyya threatened to march on State Security’s office in Zagazig, where he was to be interrogated today.

UPDATE: Here’s an AP report on Ayoub’s release and Kareem’s detention renewal:

One Egyptian blogger released but another ordered detained for 2 more weeks
By NADIA ABOU EL-MAGD
CAIRO _ An Egyptian blogger was released Thursday, four days after authorities detained him, but another blogger, first arrested earlier this month, has had his detention extended by more than two weeks, police and activists said.
Rami Siyam was detained in downtown Cairo early Sunday for questioning, a police officer said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Siyam has been running his blog since May 2005, posting material critical to the government including information on police torture and political opponents.
The officer did not say whether Siyam’s detention had any connection with anti-government items he had posted on his blog.
Fellow blogger Abdel Kareem Nabil, who was first arrested on Nov. 7, had his detention extended on Wednesday by 15 days, police said. Authorities would not say why he was arrested and why his detentions was extended.
Nabils’ friends had posted an item on the Internet that said he appeared to have been detained over an article he recently wrote on his blog dealing with Islam.
Amnesty International and media watchdog Reporters Without Borders have both criticized Egypt’s arresting of bloggers as restricting freedom of expression. the Paris-based RCF has included Egypt in “Enemies of the Internet” report issued this month.
The government has not issued any official comment.
Blogging took off in Egypt in 2004 at a time domestic political activists and the U.S. stepped up calls for political reform.
Last month, a handful of Internet bloggers reported that a group of young men had sexually harassed women at night in downtown Cairo in full view of police who did not intervene.
The bloggers, who claimed to have witnessed the attacks or spoken to witnesses, said the assailants were groups of young men and boys. They argued that the police’s failure to intervene was a sign of mismanagement and corruption in the force.
The government denied that such assaults took place and accused the bloggers of defaming Egypt.

A letter

Posted on By 3arabawy
I received this letter from a sister of an Islamist detainee, who’s been incarcerated since 1993…
اعتقل أخي عبد المنعم جمال الدين عبد المنعم منيب في 21/2/1993 و كان يعمل صحفي بالقطعة بجريدة الشعب و قدم لمحاكمه عسكرية و برئته في 30/10/1993 وكان وقتها محبوس بسجن شديد الحراسة بطره.و منعت عنه الزيارة بل عن السجن كله و انتظرنا أن يسمح لنا بزيارته و نقل دون علم الأسرة الي سجن الوادي الجديد في فبراير 1995 و كان والدي يرسل له حوالة بريدية على سجن شديد الحراسة الى أن عادت حوالة في عام 1996 و عليها ختم بريدي من الوادي الجديد و كان يصعب علينا أن نتحرى عنه ان كان نقل أم لا و قمنا بعمل تصريح زيارة الى معتقل الوادي الجديد فاذا بنا نجده هناك وكانت الزيارة سيئة و مهينة لنا و له جدا مما يشير الي وجود تعذيب مستمر وشديد للمعتقلين، و كانت زيارة من خلف الأسلاك لم نستطع رؤيته جيدا ولا سماعه فاذا بأمي تنهار و يرتفع ضغط الدم حتى يسبب لها جلطة في المخ أدت الى شلل نصفي طولي و بدأ أخي أضراب عن الطعام تقدمنا خلاله بمحاضر الى النائب العام و نيابة الخارجة و حتى رئيس الجمهورية و وزير الداخلية ووزير العدل و رئيس مجلس الشعب و وزير الصحة تلغرافيا دون جدوى، و أرسلنا خطاب استغاثة الى مفتي الديار المصرية ثم نقل المستشفى بعد أن أوشك على الموت من الاضراب و كان ذلك في منتصف عام 1998 و بعد عدة أشهر ذهبنا لزيارته بالمستشفى حيث أننا كنا نزوره كل 15 يوم فاذا به نقل الى استقبال طره حيث انه قدم الى محاكمة عسكرية أخرى تسمى العائدون من ألبانيا و قد برئته المحكمة العسكرية العليا للمرة الثانية و لكن دون جدوى حيث صدر قرار باعتقال جديد و كانت برائة المحكمة العسكرية للمرة الثانية في 18/4/1999 وقد قمنا بعمل تظلمات لم نستطيع حصرها من كثرتها و لكن دائما يعاد اعتقاله مرة ثانية و بشكل دائم دون أن يخرج من محبسه و لو ليوم واحد بالطبع كلما عاد اعتقاله تسوء حاله والديه أكثر و بعد ذلك أصيبت والدته بجلطة أخرى بالقلب و تكاثرت جلطات القلب مما سبب لها قصور شديد بالشرايين التاجية وكذلك ارتفاع في ضغط الدم و كذلك ارتفاع سكر الدم و قد اصيبت منذ الجلطة الأولى بالمخ بثقب في أذنها اليمنى و في ديسمبر الماضي أصيبت في أذنها اليسرى بثقب مما جعلها لا تستطيع السمع الا بسماعة طبية و كذلك ارتفاع السكر جعلها لا تستطيع أن ترى الا أشباح و أصيبت منذ العام الماضي بهشاشة بالعظام و تأكل في بعض غضاريف العمود الفقري و كذلك أبي يعاني أمراض الشيخوخة وتأكل في الفقرات كما أن زوجة عبد المنعم كانت تحمل طفلهم الأول و قد وضعته في سبتمبر 1993 و الآن ولده يعاني من بعض أزمات نفسية بسبب بعد والده عنه و كان يرى والده لأول مرة في مستشفى ليمان طره 1998 و لديه مشكلة في التواصل مع والده بسبب اعتقاله.عبد المنعم موجود الآن بمستشفى سجن استقبال طره و يعاني من مشاكل في غضروف العمود الفقري و قد أحاله طبيب السجن في الصيف الماضي الى مستشفى القصر العيني حيث أجريت له اشعة و عرض على الطبيب المختص بمستشفى القصر العيني وقد قرر له علاج و عودته بعد شهر كامل يوم 15/9/2006 و رغم نزول معتقلين وبشكل دائم الى مستشفى القصر العيني الا أنه منع من استمرار علاجه و قرر له و بشكل شخصي طبيب العلاج الطبيعي بالسجن أنه اذا أستخدم جهاز معين للعلاج الطبيعي الغير موجود بمستشفيات السجون و موجود بالقصر العيني سيتم شفائه.
بثينة جمال الدين عبد المنعم منيب
بطاقة رقم 2100168

There’s another letter, I had posted last summer from a former Islamist detainee, you can find here.