Around 12,000 workers at Helwan Steel Mills have started a pay strike, refusing to receive their salaries from the management, demanding salary raises and increase in bonuses.
Let’s remember that the last major industrial action in the Helwan mills was the 1989 sit-in. Mubarak back then sent in his police troops, which broke the protests by live ammunition, killing one worker, Abdel Hai Sayyed Hassan, and arresting hundreds.
There has been however increased activities on the factory floor, located south of Cairo, since the outbreak of the Winter of the Labor Discontent. Underground leftist organizers have been agitating for improving the work conditions, and drawing parallels with the textile workers in Mahalla, in previous statements that were distributed in the factory (some of which were posted here on the blog).
Good luck to the comrades in Helwan. And good luck to the comrades in Mahalla who continue to inspire their brothers and sisters in virtually every industrial and service sector.
