Following their release based on orders from the Mahalla prosecutor, the two Abul Sebae strike leaders, Abdel Halim Mahmoud and Abdel Moneim Khalifa, are still banned from entering the factory.
Tag: mahalla
Strikes continue around the country
Via Al-Masry Al-Youm:
Around 250 workers of the Nile Cotton Ginning Company at Mahalla, Zefta and Kafr al-Zayat in Gharbeia governorate have started a sit-in, accusing Chairman of the Board Abdel Ma’aboud el-Sayfi of not paying them a 7% annual bonus since the 2004. Workers sent faxes to both the Ministers of Manpower and Immigration and of Investment, demanding their unpaid salaries, bonuses and the overtime they say the company committed to them through signed agreements.
The strike has also spread to the company’s branch at Etay el-Baroud, in the Beheira governorate, who threatened to strike after three days of unpaid work in July. They also claim they did not receive a seven per cent yearly bonus, as well as a 10 per cent social bonus.
The workers assert their strike will continue until the dispute is resolved, and hope the ministries will respond as they have in other situations under pressure.
The Ministry of Manpower and Immigration, for example, has paid out of its emergency aid fund a minimum of LE 200 for each of the 1,500 workers of Abul Sebae in Mahalla, whose salaries have been delayed for two or three months.
In related news in Daqahliya, a number of temporary employees in the faculty of engineering of Mansoura University continued a strike for a second day, objecting to the dean’s refusal to make their salaries equal to those of permanent university employees. Muhammad el-Shabrawy, the faculty dean, promised the strikers during a meeting with them yesterday that he would increase their October salaries.
Not all strikes have persisted, however. In Suez, the workers of a fertilizer factory have ended a strike after three weeks, under police pressure. They did not receive any compensation from the Ministry of Manpower and Immigration.
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.