workers archives — Page 264 of 484

Canal workers continue third day of protest

Posted on 05/09/200810/04/2015 By 3arabawy

Workers in Ismailia on Wednesday continued a third day of protest against what they allege are government plans to close down the Canal Company for Ports and Large Projects.

Established in 1965, the company employs 2,000 people and undertakes sewage, electricity and infrastructure projects in the Suez Canal area.

Ashraf Abbas, a member of the Egyptian Workers and Trade Unions Watch’s Ismailia branch told Daily News Egypt that the workers have 15 demands, including wage parity with employees of the Suez Canal Authority (of which the Canal Company is a subsidiary).

Average wages range between LE 250 and LE 600 per month.

Muhammad Anwar, the head of the company’s trade union committee, told Daily News Egypt that the workers’ primary grievance is the decision by the National Authority for Drinking Water and Sewage, taken three weeks ago, to cancel 19 water station projects the Canal Company has held since 1990.

“The National Authority claims that it’s because we were late in fulfilling our obligations. Yes, we were late, but it’s the National Authority which is responsible. We spent years exchanging correspondence with them clarifying aspects of the project, and this is what caused the delay,” Anwar explained.

Anwar says that the decision to cancel the projects with the Canal Company was premeditated.
“It was planned. This is part of a scheme to destroy the Canal Company and place state-owned utilities under the control of an international cartel.

“This protest is not just to defend workers’ rights. We are also defending national security,” Anwar told Daily News Egypt.

Abbas told Daily News Egypt that in 1996 a decision was made to stop buying spare parts for the company’s equipment.

“Young people no longer receive training in the company, and in fact there are no workers under 40 employed in it. In addition, one quarter of the company’s workers are on short-term contracts. This is part of an eventual plan to privatize the Suez Canal,” he said.

He says that services provided by the company are already being contracted out to private contractors.

“The company has to pay for the difference between what the work actually costs and the rate charged by the contractors. As a result, it is making a loss.

“Contractors however who deal with the Canal Company come out millionaires, and individuals within the company’s administration also benefit from these contracts,” Abbas said.

El-Warraq Real Estate Tax Collection Office

Posted on 05/09/200820/12/2020 By 3arabawy

I visited last Wednesday El-Warraq Real Estate Tax Collection Agency, in Giza, whose employees played a central role in the 2007 strike, led by Abdel Qader Nada who is one of the province’s representatives in the Higher Strike Committee.

The working conditions at the office are not fit for humans, it looked like a barn not a government office. The civil servants are crammed into either tiny corridors that were more similar to a cellar.

“You coming to take a photo of us in our graves?” joked one of the employees in the pic above. It did feel like a grave.

Other employees have their desks located under a roof made of bouss, which do not shield them from the sun or rain.

The roof itself turned into a garbage dump.

And no facilities given to the civil servants, no computers. Nazif’s “E-Government” has no presence. The Tax Collectors have to store all the data manually and work from obsolete notebooks and files.

Updates on the Tax Collectors: SS interrogates Bani Sweif trade unionist

Posted on 04/09/200811/01/2021 By 3arabawy

State Security police interrogated yesterday Abdel Nasser Abdallah, one of the December 2007 Tax Collectors’ strike leaders, whose efforts are central to the establishment of the new independent union committee in Bani Sweif.

Abdel Nasser was contacted several times by SS officer Hisham of Bani Sweif, requesting he showed up for interrogation. After refusing to show up for days, Abdel Nasser went yesterday to the SS office in Bani Sweif, and was interrogated from 9pm to 11:45pm.

It turned out that the state-backed union officials reported the independent trade unionist to the SS, claiming he was fund raising for an “illegal trade union” and agitating for a strike. It goes to show once again what sort of people those General Federation of Trade Unions officials are… They are not representatives of the workers. They are not campaigners for labor rights. They are nothing but a bunch of police informers and cronies.

In a great show of solidarity, Abdel Nasser’s colleagues accompanied him, and assembled outside the SS building waiting to see if he would come out safe or get detained.

Inside the building, SS officer Hisham started the interrogation by threats, ordering Abdel Nasser not to leave Bani Sweif without taking prior permission from SS. Abdel Nasser refused.

“They say you are raising funds,” said SS officer Hisham.
“Not yet, but we will,” answered Abdel Nasser.
“For what?”
“For our union”
“What union?”
“We are building a free union, away from those who reported me,” Abdel Nasser said. “You and I know they are thieves and do not represent us in negotiations or get us our rights.”
“Yes, I know they are thieves. But they say you are raising funds for another strike.”
“No, I’m raising funds for our retirement sandouq and for our welfare. We are doing this in public and we have nothing to hide. The Minister of Finance knows it. The head of the Real Estate Tax Agency knows it. We meet with them regularly as the legitimate representatives of the civil servants. You can ask them yourself.”
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“I need you to pass by me and tell me everything you do,” Officer Hisham said. “If you’ll meet [the head of the General Federation of Trade Unions] Hussein Megawer or the minister or you decide anything, I have to know.”
“I’m sorry I’m not an informer! If the Higher Strike Committee tells me I come to you, then I’ll come. If not, then sorry I can’t come and tell you what we are doing. If we’ll do a public event, then I’ll come to let you know. It’s going to be public anyways, so everyone will know. I don’t mind then telling you. But I can’t come here every day to tell you we are doing this or we are doing that.”

The interrogation went on till around 11:30pm, and Abdel Nasser was very courageous and assertive in his answers, showing no grain of fear.

“You can do whatever you like to do as long as it’s legal,” continued Officer Hisham. “I like and respect what you are doing, but I will not allow any strikes. You can do whatever you want, but no strikes. What happened last year cannot be repeated again.”
“We are not planning any strikes,” said Abdel Nasser. “We want to negotiate at the present time. But we strike when we do not find any channels of communications and when we find all the doors closed in our faces. We have no choice then but to strike to get our rights.”
“Ok, I know your friends are waiting outside. I don’t want them to think I detained you. You can go.”

Abdel Nasser left the SS building around 11:45pm, to be showered with hugs and kisses from his comrades who’d been waiting for him with concern outside… ending the night with shisha and cups of tea at the Qahwa in front of the SS building.