I appeared last night on Riz Khan’s show:
Tag: dictatorship
2 Mahalla textile strike leaders detained
Two textile workers from Abul Sebae factory have been detained by the police this morning around 8am as they tried to enter the company compound, according to a Mahalla labor source. The two were among the leaders of the recent series of industrial actions and protests in their company, and the Mahalla source I spoke with said the two were taken to Mahalla’s 1st Police Station, where fabricated charges of “theft” were leveled against them.
One worker is named Abdel Halim Mahmoud, while the other’s is still unknown.
The Abul Sebae company is part of the US-Israeli-Egyptian QIZ partnership and exports towels to Israel.
More updates soon.
UPDATE: The two are still kept in Mahalla’s 1st Police Station. It turned out they were sacked on Saturday by the management for their involvement in the strikes. The workers went on Sunday morning to the company to inquire about and protest the decision, but were nabbed by the police while entering the company.
“They were accused of stealing cables,” said a Mahlla labor source. “These are fabrications. Abul Sebae cooked it up with the police. They wanted to get rid of them because of the sit-ins and the strikes.”
One worker is called: Abdel Halim Mahmoud Sayyed Ahmad, but we only know the first name of the second worker, Abdel Moneim.
Egypt’s ruling thugs
My interview on the Dave Ross Show.