The Egyptian Workers and Trade Unions Watch issued its report about the industrial action during the second week of June.
11 Labor protests were documented. (The part about the Mansoura-España Garments Company workers will need to be updated of course, but that will be for the 3rd week of June report, I guess)
I finally received a copy of the statements distributed in the Ghazl el-Mahalla last Tuesday and Wednesday.
Both statements are agitating for a sit-in on 21 July if demands related to work conditions and housing are not met. The first is signed by “The 7th of December Movement- Workers For Change,” in reference to 7 December 2006, when a 27,000-strong strike brought the factory to halt causing an upturn in industrial militancy. The statement starts by affirming that this previously unknown entity is not affiliated with any political or religious group, refuses to recognize the corrupt Egyptian General Federation of Trade Unions (EGFTU) officials, and then blasts the “ruling regime” for “selling Egypt with the lowest price,” for corruption, rigging elections, and repression.
And below is the second statement, calling for a sit-in, and demanding the impeachment of the company’s CEO:
What is interesting is the name this previously unknown group has picked for itself. “Workers For Change” was Kefaya’s not-that-successful attempt to link the anti-Mubarak campaign with working class struggle championed by the radical left. Its representatives did not perform well during the labor union elections in fall 2006, and not necessarily because of the security interventions. But the wave of strikes instigated by Ghazl el-Mahalla’s truimphant industrial action last December, produced some political impact… whether it’s the demand to impeach the corrupt, state-sponsored trade unionists and the threats to launch an independent national labor union parallel to Mubarak’s EGFTU by the most advanced sections in the movement, or the “Workers For Change” statements we are receiving from places like Kafr el-Dawar and now Ghazl el-Mahalla that is slowly adopting the lingo of the radical left even if it is not necessarily affiliated organizationally with the current operating leftist groups.
It’s 3pm, the workers received their May salaries, their social bonuses and May Day grants for the year 2006. The workers are refusing to leave the factory however before they receive an official document from the management stating the latter received the factory in a good condition.
“Tomorrow is Friday, the day off. The management can sabotage the machines, and then blame us on Saturday when we show up,” said one of the female garment workers in a telephone interview.
I asked another male worker, also on the phone, what they would do on Saturday, and whether there were any production orders they would work on. “No, we have not received a single production order from the management in a month and half, as the bank was planning to liquidate the firm. We will show up on time on Saturday, and stay in the factory from 7am to 3pm. If the management brings us a production order, we’ll resume work right away. If there is not, then we will stay in the factory.”
Asked about the workers’ response if they showed up on Saturday only to find their company closed down, the male worker said they were planning to protest outside the company and blockade the highway in front of the factory, while the female worker asserted they were planning to storm the factory again and occupy it if the United Bank betrays the agreement.