Via Al-Masry Al-Youm English Edition:
Egypt’s property tax collectors are starting an open-ended strike on Tuesday, protesting the Finance Ministry’s decree by which a project for a social welfare fund was commissioned to the state-backed union instead of the independent union that enjoys the support of the majority of the ministry’s civil servants.
The tax collectors had organized a “warning protest” Thursday in front of the parliament, but received no official response.
“We informed the (Finance) Minister with our demands and we’re waiting for a reply by the end of tomorrow,” said Abdel Qader Nada, secretary general of the independent Union of Real Estate Tax Authority employees. “If our demands are not met, we will demonstrate everywhere on Tuesday.”
Last Thursday’s protest included demonstrators from seven governorates, but this Tuesday’s strike would cover 27 governorates, Nada added.
Tarek Moustafa, a Qalyoubeya tax collector and the independent union’s treasurer, asserted the “strike isn’t going to end until our demands are fulfilled. The last sit-in that was two years ago lasted for 12 days in the winter, so what would prevent us this time from staying until we get what we want?”
Kamal Abu Eita, president of the independent union, said on Thursday rights organizations and international labor unions would support Tuesday’s strike. “We will receive a response,” he was certain.
When contacted, the Finance Ministry refused to comment claiming that “Ministry of manpower and the trade unionists are the ones in charge of the fund issue, but not the Ministry of Finance,” according to Ahmad Abdel Razek, director of the Finance Minister’s Assistant’s Office. “The Finance Ministry’s role was limited to issuing the decree of the fund’s establishment out of the members’ (state-backed union) membership fees. Anything else is not our responsibility.”
Aisha Abdel Hadi, Minister of Manpower and Immigration was not available for comment, while her office director, Nahed el-Ashry, refused to speak saying: “Sorry, I don’t prefer interviews with press.”
Egypt’s property tax collectors had staged national protests in 2007 that culminated with a 12-day sit-in in front of the ministerial cabinet headquarters in downtown Cairo. They roughly raised their salaries by 325 percent, thanks to the strike, and went on a year later to found Egypt’s first independent trade union in half a century. Their union was recognized by international trade unions like Public Service International, and saw more than 35,000 local tax collectors joining its ranks, out of a total of 55,000.
