Tag: strikes

Striker منير.. خطاط جراج المستقبل

Posted on By 3arabawy

Mounir Fawzi منير فوزي

Mounir Fawzi Ahmad, a 37-year-old who’s been working at the Public Transportation Authority as a calligrapher for the past 10 years, for a basic monthly salary of LE179 that goes up with the bonuses to a pathetic LE350.

His job at el-Mostaqba Garage includes painting the busses’ license plates and the side placards that carry the names of the Garages and stations. Not only does he have to put up with the ridicule he occasionally receives from his managers for being a dwarf, but also he is not given any art supplies for his work. No brushes, no paints, nothing. Mounir has to buy these supplies on his own expense!

Transport workers meeting

Posted on By 3arabawy

I attended yesterday a small celebration gathering hosted by the local branch of the Nasserist Party in Ezbet el-Nakhl, north of Cairo, that included some of the Public Transport strike leaders, activist lawyers and journalists.

Abdel Ghani عبد الغني

Abdel Ghani, Imbaba Garage: “The Mahalla workers and the textile strikes taught all Egyptian workers how to strike and to stage sit-ins.”

Samir سمير

Samir, Giza Branch: “We are ready to strike again if the government does not fulfill the agreement.”

Wael وائل

Wael, Nasr City’s el-Mostaqbal Garage: “The (state-backed) General Union (of Transport Workers) belongs to the government, not the workers. We need a new union. We already started our campaign to collect signatures from the workers to impeach the members of the union committee. If the General Union does not accept the impeachment requests, we will launch an independent union like what the real estate tax collectors did.”

Haitham Mohammadein هيثم محمدين

Socialist Lawyer, Haitham Mohammadein, the legal consultant for the Union of Real Estate Authority employees: “There is a lot to be learned from the experience of the Real Estate Tax Collectors. The government claims the General Federation of Trade Unions is the only representative of the workers. That is not true. This Federation represents the government interests only.  The tax collectors understood this fact well, and the law was on their side. The government breaches the constitution and the international conventions it signed by restricting your right to form a new independent union.”