UPDATE 9:30am: A number of the strikers are leaving the factory, on their way to demonstrate in front of the Daqahliya Province Governorate HQ in Mansoura

UPDATE: 12noon: Central Security Forces surrounded the factory. State Security officers are threatening strikers with arrests.. Fire truck opened water canons on the strikers.

UPDATE: 5:30pm: I was out most of the day, but I’ve been twittering the strike. I hope you were following my Twitter account. The strike was suspended under pressures from the police and labor ministry officials. The troops siege was only lifted when the workers were allowed to leave the factory compound by 4pm.

The security guard at the company gate, whose name is Yasser, will be punished by the management for “allowing journalists into the factory” and for refusing to testify against a colleague accused by the management of letting the workers out of the warehouses exit, after the management tried locking them up inside the factory. They will deduct 10 days from his salary.

Mohsen el-Sha’er’s saga continues, while it seems the management has halted its earlier move against the four other workers.

There was production yesterday in the company as an order for 1,600 pieces of garments came through. The workers complain since the brokering of the agreement last year (which was betrayed by the United Bank), the management did not seek any new clients for the firm and the total time spent in production amounted to one or two months out of the entire year. Prior to 2006, the workers say the company used to produce 6,000 pieces of garments a month to client around the world, including the US.

Blogger Ahmad Abdel Fattah has some more pix from the factory here.

Initially we were denied access to the factory by the security, acting at the behest of the management, who went ahead and locked up the workers inside to prevent them from coming out to meet us. Few minutes to 2pm, the workers stormed their way out using another exit [located at the company warehouses], and brought us inside the factory.

There’s bitterness among virtually all the workers, who feel they’ve been let down by everyone: The management, Labor Ministry and the state-backed General Federation of Trade Unions.

From a 1,200-strong labor force in 2006 and a monthly production exports of at least 6,000 pieces of garments to clients around the world, including the US, the number of workers went down in 2007 to 287 workers, and now it’s 250 only. The dwindling numbers are a result of sackings or resignations over the dismal work conditions. The management also does not bring them any more production orders, with the aim of liquidating the business.

The average basic monthly salary of the workers ranges between LE150 to 200 [USD28 to 37]. And they were neither paid their Social Bonuses nor May Day grants from 1999 to 2006.

The workers were only paid these grants and bonuses for the year 2007, when the management and the govt were terrified by their factory occupation last year.

I’ll write more later, but for now you can check out more background info about the factory in this dossier and Flickr set.

Two hundred and fifty workers at the Mansoura-España garments factory in Talkha demonstrated for a second day against the dismissal of colleague Mohsen El-Shae’r.
El-Shae’r, 34, was given his marching orders after “speaking to the papers” about proposed changes to working regulations in the factory.
“I was called into the office where I was taken to task for giving quotes to newspapers, such as Al-Dostour, concerning conditions in the factory, and was told I was fired.”
By law, employees can only be fired after an investigation, which must be conducted in the presence of a member of the Labor Union board.
El-Shae’r, who has worked at the factory for 12 years, made an official complaint to the Ministry of Manpower and Immigration on Saturday, June 14.
“The company officials were ordered by the Ministry of Manpower and Immigration to retract my dismissal, as I had done nothing contrary to the law. However, they refused, saying they are prepared to go to court to fight it out.”
Yesterday, workers demonstrated outside the factory to pressure officials to backtrack on their decision. During a visit from United Bank representative Said Galal, it came to light that there was ambiguity as to the reasoning underpinning the dismissal.
United Bank is the holding company of Mansoura-España.
According to El-Shae’r, this points to attempts to stifle the demands of activist workers. “I spoke to Galal yesterday,” he said. “He didn’t know who I was and began to speak about ‘Mohsen El-Shae’r’ with apparent familiarity. Having claimed to know me personally, he said the reason I had been sacked was for agitating during a general meeting held on June 1. But this was not the reason I was given at my dismissal.”
The general meeting on June 1 took place to announce that the factory had been sold and will be taken over by executive and Member of Parliament Youssri El-Ghazali. However, a change to the working hours was also announced: current hours of 8 am to 3:30 pm were due to be changed to 8 am to 5:30 pm. A pay raise was not included.
“I strongly objected to these changes in the meeting,” explained El-Shae’r, “however, it is within my right to do so, not to mention the fact that 80 percent of workers are women, who have domestic duties and cannot practically work until 5:30 pm.”
The plans to alter working hours were subsequently reversed when workers filed an official complaint to the Labor Union. Factory officials were told to either revoke the decision or face a fine.
El-Shae’r traveled to Cairo Monday June 16 to meet with Nahed El-Ashry from the Manpower and Immigration Ministry, and company representatives from United Bank Badawi Hassanein and Mustafa Azouza.
Neither Hassanein nor Azouza showed up. It was confirmed that should they fail to attend an appointment with the workers in the next two weeks, the matter will be passed on to Manpower Minister Aisha Abdel Hadi.
However, the current demonstrations are not the only show of worker activism seen in the Mansoura-España factory in recent years.
El-Shae’r was one of six workers who had their dismissal revoked after the Mansour-España workers ‘spring offensive’ of 2007, where workers staged a long sit-in to secure wages and allowances.
According to employees and social activists, factory officials have failed to pay Labor Day allowances and annual index-linked pay rises since 1999. By spring 2007, they were failing to pay even the basic salary, which led works to stage a sit-in occupying the factory in April 2007.
Officials were claiming that the factory was sustaining losses and was under review to be liquidated.
The sit-in won the promise of factory owners that it would not be liquidated. In a General Assembly meeting for shareholders held on July 1, 2007, the holding company drastically cut share prices in what workers claim to be preparations for a quick sell.
But decisions of the July General Assembly were declared null and void by the Minister of Investment, after minority shareholders, who had not been informed of the meeting, raised court cases against Egypt United Bank on the basis that the July Assembly had to be held in Talkha to be considered valid.
Despite past victories, however, employees fear the worst.