I visited el-Mahalla el-Kobra on Friday.
Two of the December Ghazl el-Mahalla strike leaders told me that up till now around 6,000 workers have resigned from the government-controlled General Federation of Trade Unions, after the latter’s refusal to impeach the Factory Union Committee. At least 56 resignations a day are sent to the Federation, by registered mail (costing each worker LE2.5 per letter, according to the two labor activists; a huge sum for the workers there believe it or not!).
Labor union officials at Schindler company threatened to stage an open ended sit in tomorrow at the General Federation for Trade Unions’ HQ in Galaa St., if the Labor Minister did not intervene tonight to stop the factory’s land sale, and force the company management back to the negotiations table.
I called the head of the Factory Union Committee at the company, Muhammad Abdel Salam and he told me the following:
-There are 700 workers at the company, in Cairo and Alexandria. They belong to the General Union for Engineering Industries.
-The government owns 76.6% of the company shares. The rest are owned by Schindler (which gave the company its commercial trademark), and a group of Saudi and Kuwaiti investors.
-The management took a decision back in October 2006, to “sell the company’s land and facilities,” according to Muhammad Abdel Salam. “The sale is scheduled on Saturday. No one told us what exactly was happening. Does that mean they are liquidating the company and its labor force? We want the workers’ rights protected.”
-Two union delegations from Cairo and Alexandria met with the company’s CEO today, who refused to clarify the situation and signing on any promises on paper.
-If Labor Minister Aisha Abdel Hadi does not intervene to either bring about a settlement, stop the land sale, or force the management back to the negotiations table, Muhammad Abdel Salam told me they were starting an open-ended sit-in tomorrow at the General Federation’s HQ in Cairo.
I received a statement signed by “Workers for Change in Kafr el-Dawar,” calling for establishing “Representatives’ Committees” that would “monitor the performance of the Union Committee (in the factory)” to act as a “democratic liaison between the workers and the Union.”
The statement also called for “expanding the the coordination between workers in companies that went on strike with us, to create the necessary solidarity links and exchange experiences.”
This is a very interesting development. Prior to the strike there was no entity by the name “Workers for Change in Kafr el-Dawar” that existed. This statement clearly shows there are sections (or at least elements) from the largely spontaneous strike leaders are developing politically and pushing for a more sophisticated forms of organizations that can sustain future strike activities. It’s a slow process, but it has started.
In Ghazl el-Mahalla Company, the situation remains unclear, that’ why I did not blog about it earlier. I had received information that the mass resignations from the govt’s General Federation of Trade Unions campaign started roughly a week ago. The workers, as far as I understood, are mailing the union around 50 resignations a day. The General Union of Textile Workers denied it received any, according to a socialist journalist friend of mine who called Said el-Gohary. I’m still uclear about the total number of workers who have already resigned, and what the next step will be. I’ll post more about this in the coming few days, as I get more details.