Tag: gharbeia

Via Al-Masry Al-Youm English Edition:

Around 1000 workers at the Tanta Flax and Oil Company continued their strike for the 72nd day on the row, rejecting a suspension order from the state-backed union issued Sunday night. By 11 Monday morning, the workers had taken to the streets–blocking off the highway in front of the factory in Mit Hebeish, near Tanta’s southern entrance.
For more than two months, the strikers have protested the management of a Saudi businessman, Abdel Ilah el-Kahki, who purchased the company when it was privatized in 2005. The new owner, they complain, has delayed salaries and bonuses and already sacked nine prominent strike leaders.
Police and security forces were quick to intervene Monday, and by noon at least eight Central Security Forces trucks and one armored vehicle accompanied by an ambulance were making their way to the factory in order “to shut us down,” said one worker over the phone as the vehicles began to come into view.
According to strikers Safwat Michel and Hisham el-Okal, security forces cordoned off the area in front of the factory where hundreds of workers are continuing their sit-in. Michel said via telephone that “the security have put trucks in front of the factory and are not letting anything through.”
The workers tried to go to the local mosques in Mit Hebeish village and rally the local residents on behalf of the strikers, but they were banned by the police, el-Okal said.
“The security told the head of the village that he will lose his job if he allows us to go up the minarets and use the microphones to call for help from the citizens,” said el-Okal, one of the factory’s most vocal strike leaders who was fired for his activities.
On Sunday evening in Cairo, the strike leaders met with representatives from state-backed General Union of Textile Workers where they were asked to end their strike and given, “verbal promises to solve our problem,” said el-Okal.
His colleague Michel said the strikers have no intention of ending their activities until their concerns are addressed.
“We have been waiting for our demands to be heard and the owner has not wanted to deal with us properly until now, so why should we,” he said
Workers, said el-Okal, had put together new banners, hung on the factory’s gates, denouncing private investors and calling for the government to re-nationalize the company. Others, including el-Okal, have openly called for the self-management of the firm, away from both private investment and the Egyptian government.
A sit-in at the Labor Ministry was scheduled for Sunday morning, but due to security pressure, the state-run general union backed out.

After lending its hypocritical support for the 1000+strong workers’ strike at the Tanta Flax and Oil Company, located in Mit Hebeish (by Tanta’s southern entrance), the corrupt, state-backed General Federation of Trade Unions and the General Union of Textile Workers have instructed tonight the Factory Union Committee (FCU) members to suspend the strike action, saying the “problem was solved,” without presenting to the strike leaders any written agreement with the Saudi investor or the government.

Said el-Gohary, the head of the General Union of Textile Workers, according to one of the strike leaders present in the meeting, told the FCU members to immediately disband the industrial action, “verbally telling us we’ll get the bonuses and an increase in the food allowance, without any mention of the return of sacked workers, or the future of the company under this Saudi investor who has sucked our blood. The company has to go back to the public sector or they should leave it for us to run it. And above all that, he (Gohary) asked us to thank the (Labor) Minister and Hussein Megawer (head of the federation) for their ‘efforts!'”

One strike leader exploded in Gohary’s face: “You know Naksset ’67?! This is like Naksset ’67!” referring to the 1967 defeat in front of Israel which has become only second to doomsday in Egyptian slang when describing a catastrophe.

I spoke with two FCU members on the phone as they were heading back to Nile Delta. There was so much noise in the car. People were shouting  and arguing in anger. They were clearly unhappy. I could hear in the background one interrupting an FCU member while speaking to me about details of the meeting, asking him nervously “who’s that you are talking to over the phone?!” The other strike leader answered: “It’s Hossam el-Hamalawy.” I could hear the other guy’s hysterically screaming: “TELL HIM THE SCANDAL! TELL HIM THE SCANDAL!” followed by more noise in the car and a fluctuating mobile phone signal.

“We will update everyone in the factory tomorrow morning, and it will their decision,” said the FCU. “If the suspension of the strike is refused, we will continue no matter what.”

The two strike leaders I spoke with are clearly against the suspension, but my sources also confirm there are severe divisions within the ranks of the leadership at the moment. Some have become tired after 72 days of striking in the middle of nowhere in the Nile Delta, besieged by the police and banned from media coverage, and steadily financially drained, thanks to the Federation.

What is the balance of power at the moment? It is not clear. It will be settled tomorrow morning on the factory floor… The strikers will have the last word…

My heart and thoughts go out to the brave men and women workers of the Tanta Flax and Oil Company…