Tag: protests

DSE on grain mills workers

Posted on By 3arabawy

A report by the Daily Star Egypt on the struggle of the grain mills workers in Cairo and Giza:

Strikes by flourmill workers ended Monday following a meeting that brought together union representatives from Cairo and Giza flourmills companies, and three cabinet ministers.
Magdy Abdel Azim, deputy head of the Union Committee of the North Cairo flour mills told The Daily Star Egypt that the workers were satisfied with the decision of Minister of Social Solidarity Ali Al-Moselhi, Minister of Labor Aicha Abdel Hady and Investment Minister Mahmoud Moheiddin to freeze a decree by Al-Moselhi that would have cut workers’ monthly bonuses by 35 percent.
Over 5,000 workers at the North Cairo and South Cairo and Giza Flourmills had gone on strike last Thursday to protest Al-Moselhi’s decision to reduce the daily quota of wheat allocated to the North Cairo Mill by 429 tons and the quota to the South Cairo and Giza Flourmills by 413 tons.
“These cuts,” said Adel Azim, “threatened the very existence of our mills for the benefit of the private sector. They would have minimized our role in distributing the flour, not milling it.”
Workers’ bonuses, he continued, are tied to the mills’ production rate. The decision would have cost the workers two thirds of their salaries as well as their annual profit shares.
According to the daily Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper, the mill workers had temporarily ended the strike Friday night after promises by Secretary-General of the General Federation of Trade Unions Hussein Megawer that their demands will be met by Monday at the latest, when the issue was to be discussed at the People’s Assembly.
When nothing was done, the workers resumed the strike, raising the specter of a bread crisis in Cairo and Giza.

One correction though: the report states the workers were on strike. Actually, they were not. They staged sit-ins and marched inside the factory compound chanting anti-government slogans, but production still went on. This scared the government enough into submitting to the workers’ demands, especially when the company has branches in 14 provinces (including Cairo and Giza); the workers in the provinces were waiting to see how the govt will handle the negotiations and there were signs the sit-ins may spread to other branches, namely to Minya.

Grain Mills workers score victory; 4000 Alexandrian textile workers on strike

Posted on By 3arabawy

I received news that the government has yielded to the Grain Mills workers’ demands in Giza and Cairo. Frightened by the 9000-strong sit-in and a looming strike, the regime agreed not to cut down the supply of wheat to the company, and revoked its earlier decision to divert part of the supply to privately-owned firms–a move that would have cut down production in the company’s grain mills, decreased workers’ bonuses, signalling the gradual liquidation of the public company.

In other developments, 4,000 textile workers in Alexandria’s state-owned United Arab Bolivara Spinning and Weaving Silk Company resumed their strike yesterday, denouncing the management’s decision to deduct the five days of production stoppage, during last month’s strike, out of the workers’ monthly salaries. I’m told by a Socialist journalist that the strike was suspended last night, but no more details available yet.

Meanwhile, the closure of the Center for Trade Union and Workers’ Services branch in Naga’a Hammadi continues, as the government accuses its directors of being “communists who spread the culture of strikes.”

9000 grain mills workers resume sit-in

Posted on By 3arabawy

Thousands of workers at the North & South of Cairo, Giza Company resumed their sit-in today 9am, to protest the govt’s decision to divert the grains supply to private sector firms, in a move signalling the regime’s intent to privatize/liquidate the public sector company. The workers have other demands related to their bonuses and social insurance.

The Center for Socialist Studies’ solidarity statement has more details, in Arabic, about the Giza and Cairo sit-ins, as well as updates on the Grain Mills in Minya where workers are threatening industrial action.

I reported previously that the workers had started a strike. I was wrong. It is a sit-in not a strike. The workers have occupied the factory, one shift following the other, but the production is still going. The Grain Mills are among the “strategic sectors” where strikes are banned by law; other strategic sectors include electricity, military factories, etc. A halt in production in the Grain Mills, means the subsidized bread in Cairo and Giza will basically vanish. I was told by a Socialist activist who’s in touch with the workers in the company that a strike in the Grain Mills “is some f$%king serious business. The army could be even called in to crush it.”

The workers had started their sit-in Thursday, but suspended it on the weekend (that coincided with the Prophet Muhammad Birthday holidays) after being promised by the Labor Ministry their demands will be looked into. The workers threatened to resume their sit-in Monday morning, if their demands were not met.

Despite the government’s statements about its efforts to solve the crisis, nothing happened. The sit in was resumed today at the company’s branches in Giza, Sharabeya and Sayyeda Zeinab; and reportedly a number of workers have started a hunger strike at 6pm.

I’ll update the posting if I receive more info.