Egypt’s strike wave, the strongest since 1946, continues. Power to the workers!
Tag: workers
Strikers ‘balloon’ their demands to the president
The Justice Experts protests continue, Al-Masry Al-Youm English Edition reports:
Justice Experts’ strike entered its 21st day, as protesters “ballooned” their five demands to the president.
Faced with the Justice Minister’s refusal to meet them, the strikers came up with a new way to make their voices heard. They put together a banner with Mubarak’s picture on it, attached to their demands.
The banner was flown into the air with the help of balloons tied to it, reaching the 13th floor where the Justice Minister’s office exists, passing by the 5th floor that includes the office of the Justice Minister’s Assistant for the Judicial Inspection Affairs.
At the top of the demands’ list was issuing a law to equalize state litigators and the administrative prosecutors, annul the decision that “overlooks justice and the plaintiffs’ rights,” especially in deciding to delegate plaintiffs to courts and in implementing Regulation No. 8 for the Year 2009 that prevents sending case files to the experts’ offices, and finally giving the authority back to the justice experts’ head sector.
Mahmoud Kobaissy, the head of the Alexandrian Justice Experts told Al-Masry Al-Youm that the heads of the experts’ bureaus asked the Justice Minister to set a date for meeting in the strike solidarity statement they issued past Wednesday. But, no date has been set yet.
Experts chanted during their protest in front of the Justice Ministry, saying they were confident of President Mubarak’s support to fulfill their demands, especially after the five-member delegation’s meeting with the presidency representative the day before yesterday. The representative had promised to inform the president of their demands and assured their problem would be tackled quickly.
Among the protesters’ chants was: “Mubarak, We went to your doorstep. So please make a decision, We are waiting for you!”
In other developments, the heads of Justice Experts’ bureaus have also announced they would be joining the strike starting next Wednesday.
Meanwhile, a big number of Justice Experts are still staging an open-ended sit-in in the Nile Delta provinces of Qalyuobia, Damiette, and Daqahahliya, as they prepare to join their striking colleagues in Cairo next Wednesday
Chinese steel workers beat takeover boss to death over job cuts
From the Guardian:
Workers who beat to death a steel firm executive in north-east China had been told that 25,000 of them would lose their jobs in a takeover, according to sources quoted by state media.
Officials in Jilin province ordered the deal to be scrapped after the death of Chen Guojun, the general manager of the Jianlong Steel Holding Company, on Friday.
Beijing-based Jianlong is one of the largest private steelmakers in China. It planned to take a majority stake in the state giant Tonghua Iron and Steel Group, which makes about 7m tonnes of steel a year.
But workers at Tonghua believed it would axe thousands of jobs. A demonstration halted production at the site and quickly escalated into violence.
“Employees [many of whom are shareholders] are close to enjoying financial gains as the price of steel continues to rise,” a police officer told the official newspaper China Daily.
“Then Chen disillusioned workers and provoked them by saying most of them would be laid off in three days. Chen, saying that a total number of 30,000 employees would be cut to 5,000, infuriated the crowd.”
According to state media, Jianlong had held a sizable stake in Tonghua since 2005 and had been instrumental in restructuring the company. Last year Jianlong left the partnership following poor results – reportedly leading workers to celebrate with firecrackers.
But as the price of steel rebounded, aided by the government’s stimulus package, Tonghua’s prospects improved and Jianlong sought a majority stake in the firm.