Tag: domino effect

Hundreds of Tanta workers stage sit-in

Posted on By 3arabawy

Hours following the victory of Ghazl el-Mahalla strikers, hundreds of workers from the Tanta Flax and Oils Company, staged a strike demanding an increase in their profit shares to a six-month pay, an increase in their food allowance, and instating 200 workers who are on temporary work contracts. The company is owned by a private Saudi investor, and is located in the Nile Delta province of Gharbeia, where Mahalla is.

UPDATE: According to Al-Masry Al-Youm, a total of 600 workers took part in the protests. The paper also reports more on the situation of the uninstated 200 workers: They’ve been working in the company for seven years, with a LE6 (roughly one US Dollar) daily wage.

Mahalla: ‘This is just the beginning’

Posted on By 3arabawy

I was on the phone earlier with a Socialist activist who was involved in the Mahalla strike.

He asserted the mood was euphoric among the workers following the victory they achieved, and there’s a general sense of empowerment among them.

And, “this is just the beginning,” he said. “The other textile workers in Kafr el-Dawar and elsewhere have been watching what Mahalla was doing. I expect a good number of strikes to take place in these coming months. Most of the issues over which the factories struck last winter and spring remain unresolved. The promises (from the managers and govt officials) always revolved around ‘we will give you what you want, but with the start of the new financial year.’ Well, the financial year started mid July and the workers expected the govt to deliver, which didn’t happen in most of the cases. Now, with the victory of Mahalla, others will be encouraged to repeat what happened in their own factories.”

Mahalla updates

Posted on By 3arabawy

I’ve spoken with a Socialist activist inside the factory. He says around 3am one of the members of the company board showed up and “tried to offer the workers a weak settlement, but they refused. Then around 8am in the morning a delegation from the (govt-founded) National Council for Human Rights and said they were here part of a fact finding mission to investigate the conditions of the workers.

These are positive signs that the police is not going to storm the factory soon, as they were planning earlier. But of course I could be wrong, who knows how the Interior Ministry thinks. It looks like the government may be heading for a compromise to end the strike.

“If the strike ends in victory,” he continued, “can you imagine the domino effect it will have? That could well open a new season of strikes like what happened in December (2006). Anyways, let’s wait and see.”

On another front, the Socialist Students in Helwan and Cairo Universities issued a statement in solidarity with the strikers.