Tag: unions

Police ban engineers’ protest

Posted on By 3arabawy

I received a statement from the Democratic Engineers, denouncing the police crackdown on their protest two days ago.

Thousands of engineers were planning a demonstration in front of their syndicate on Tuesday 4pm, to protest the continuing government control over their syndicate, which has led to an actual total freeze on its activities.

The syndicate came under the siege of hundreds of Central Security Forces troops and plainclothes Gestapo agents, who banned the engineers from approaching their syndicate, and left the small number, who managed to cross the security cordon, surrounded completely.

Ghazl el-Mahalla workers to receive General Union’s reply today

Posted on By 3arabawy

The General Union of Textile Workers has invited the Ghazl el-Mahalla December strike leaders to come to Cairo for a meeting, one day before the end of the ultimatum set by the labor activists. The workers are expected to arrive in buses at the General Union’s HQ at 11am, and should receive the latter’s reply to the workers’ demand to impeach their Factory Union Committee officials.

After their strike victory last December, the Ghazl el-Mahalla workers submitted on 29 January a petition signed by around 13,000 workers demanding the impeachment of the factory’s local union branch officials, after the latter took a negative stand towards the strike.

Ghazl el-Mahalla Textile Worker slamming his union officials

The workers gave the General Union an ultimatum of the 15th of February, threatening, for the first time since 1957, to resign en masse from the General Federation of Trade Unions, stop paying their membership fees, and launch an independent labor union.

The General Union’s HQ is located: 327 Shobra – Mazallat St. There’s an Underground Metro station meters away: El-Mazallat Station, Shobra line.

Socialist Alliance denounces govt Federation of Trade Unions

Posted on By 3arabawy

The Socialist Alliance (an umbrella coordination mechanism that includes the Revolutionary Socialists, the Egyptian Communist Party, the left-leaning Justice Center for Labor Rights) has issued a statement, in solidarity with the textile strikers in the Nile Delta towns, and denouncing the corruption of the government’s General Federation of Trade Unions.

You can find the statement in Arabic here.

I’ve also received news that the Kafr el-Dawar workers may start a hunger strike tomorrow.