Tag: strikes

10th of Ramadan City texile workers threaten to block Ismailia road

Posted on By 3arabawy

Translation via Per:

300 workers at Salamco Spinning & Weaving in 10th of Ramadan city has been on strike for 12 days, al-Youm al-Sabe3 reports. They are threatening to go on hunger strike and cutting the road to Ismailia if their demands are not realized, saying that they have not been paid since January. According to a representative of the local union, the owner of the factory has “disappeared” and negotiations are conducted over phone only. The owner is apparently intending to close down the factory. Workers say they previously tried to go to his home in Masr el-Gadida to demonstrate outside but were prevented by security.

Again: I do NOT endorse the 6 April ‘general strike’

Posted on By 3arabawy

Here we again.. The 6th of April Youth are renewing their Facebook call for a “general strike” amid sensational media coverage both locally and internationally. While I respect the sincere intentions of those who are calling for this “general strike” I will NOT endorse it. Why? My reasons for not endorsing the April 2008 call (and the ensuing ones, how many were they? three or four “Facebook general strikes”? I lost count!) remain unchanged in April 2009.

Strikes domino effect

Posted on By 3arabawy

The dominoes keep rolling and falling.

The Grain Mills workers demonstrated last week, demanding equal treatment to that received by the Mahalla textile workers.

The Tax Collectors were cited as an inspiration for bank workers slamming their incompetent state-backed union officials.

The Education Ministry’s civil servants are moving nationally, forming new structures of mobilization parallel to the state-backed General Union. The latter, coming under strong pressure is moving against the government, but in a very very very regulated way that diffuses the militancy of what amounts to more than half a million civil servants. But just like what the tax collectors did in 2007, the Education civil servants’ grassroots leaders are pushing for an occupation in Hussein Hegazi St., due to start this Sunday.

The above are just few examples of how the domino effect works. Small victories snowball into mass strikes by blue and white collar workers, spilling from one sector to the other.

Thank you Mahalla.