The Hennawi Tobacco Company was surrounded by police troops on Saturday morning, barring and assaulting 33 women workers who were unlawfully sacked by the management.
Thirty two had gone on Thursday to the Labor Office, during their break time, to file a complaint against the management which deducted LE8 out of their monthly pay for insurance, though the workers receive no benefits. They were also there to testify in support of another colleague, named Safaa, who was fired on Thursday on fabricated charges.
The Labor Office, however, stalled registering their complaint. Moreover, the police were brought in and a plainclothes agent, named Salah el-Banna directed the most foul slurs to the women workers in the presence of the Labor Office director Reda el-Wakil, whose wife is reportedly working at the Hennawi Company in a privileged position.
As expected, the management was notified of the 32 women worker’s complaint, and when they showed up for work on Saturday morning they were shocked to find out they, together with their colleague Safaa, were barred from entering the factory, which was surrounded by Central Security Forces trucks, ambulances, police cars with officers and informers from the Bandar Damanhour Criminal Investigations police and State Security agents. The women were told they were fired and reported to the police for “illegal assembly, striking, using foul language against the managers.”
The police assaulted the women when they insisted on entering, and one of the agents involved was named as Ibrahim Mahmoud.
The workers filed a complaint at the Prosecutor’s Office, where they are also to be investigated for the fabricated charges leveled by the company management against them.
Meanwhile, Hagga Aisha Abu Samada, a trade unionist who led the strikes and the protests in the factory last year is still sacked and fighting in court to get instated.
