Interviews with the strikers:
Tag: strikes
“The strikes are a new fashion threatening all of Egypt’s companies”
The Tanta Flax and Oils Company workers scored a victory, suspending their sit-in after they achieved most of their demands.
And as soon as this dispute was settled, 700 textile workers went on strike in Damietta Spinning and Weaving Company demanding their annual profit shares. The chairman of the company, is quoted by Al-Masry Al-Youm as saying: “Strikes have become a fashion that threatens the Egyptian factories”
More details could also be found in this AFP report:
Egypt struggled Tuesday to stem a rising tide of industrial action as officials rushed to end the third strike in a week, the latest challenge to President Hosni Mubarak’s regime.
Labour ministry officials met employee representatives at the Damietta Spinning and Weaving Co to come to an agreement just 24 hours after workers kicked off their strike, the official MENA news agency said.
Labour Minister Aisha Abdel Hadi told reporters she was eager to “protect the interests and rights of the workers.”
On Saturday, some 24,000 workers at the Mahalla Spinning and Weaving Co ended their strike over unpaid profit shares and low wages after the government agreed to meet their demands.
The same pattern followed at the Tanta Linseed and Oil factory, where hundreds of workers struck to demand unpaid profit shares, with their demands swiftly met.
“The strikes are a new fashion threatening all of Egypt’s companies,” the chairman of the Damietta factory told the independent daily al-Masry al-Youm.
Historic victory for Egyptian workers at Mahalla textile plant
From Socialist Worker:
They brought drums and homemade placards, set up a sea of tents in the factory grounds and turned the forecourt of the mill into a week-long mass meeting.
While riot police gathered outside, 27,000 workers occupied the giant Ghazl al-Mahalla textile plant north of the Egyptian capital Cairo last week, demanding the government fulfill its promise to pay a bonus equivalent to 150 days’ pay.
Within a week workers forced President Hosni Mubarak’s regime into a humiliating retreat.