Hossam el-Hamalawy
The year 2006 witnessed 222 labor protests (sit-ins, strikes, demos), according to Al-Masry Al-Youm.
“The word ‘sit-in’ has become one of the most popular terms in Egypt’s political scene,” the paper wrote, “while some experts are expecting a popular uprising in the not so distant future.”
More than 1,000 workers at the state-owned Grain Grinding Mills in Talbeya, Giza, have started a sit-in Thursday morning, protesting the government’s decision to reduce the supply of wheat to the company, in favor of privately owned firms, in what the workers fear as the first step towards privatizing or closing down the mills.