workers archives — Page 435 of 484

Cement workers update

Posted on 25/05/200711/02/2021 By 3arabawy

The early buy-out packages negotiations reached a dead end yesterday with militant trade unionists representing Suez, Tora and Helwan Cement workers rightly raising the ceiling of their demands to discourage the Italian management from cutting down the labor force in the company, following the December strikes.

The Factory Union Committee officials, according to Al-Masry Al-Youm, deliberately gave the management a set of high-ceiling demands they knew would be refused. While union officials played a sabotaging, pro-govt role in most of the current strikes, there are cases where few independent Factory Union Committees took the side of the workers, including the above mentioned cement companies.

Kefaya calls for referendum on privatization, blasts corruption in new report

Posted on 25/05/200728/12/2020 By 3arabawy

From the Daily Star Egypt:

The Kefaya Movement for Change has taken a stand this week against the privatization of state-owned properties, calling for a national referendum before any further sales can take place.
The activist group, whose public support has dwindled in the last two years, claims that the country’s privatization program has been marred by rampant corruption. They argue that many properties have been sold for far less than their actual value to investors with the right political connections. In this environment, they say, the state no longer has the legitimacy to sell Egypt’s public enterprises without first consulting the people.
Kefaya’s demands were raised in a new report released by the group, entitled “No to the Sale of Egypt.”

Update on the Mansoura-España Garments Company workers sit-in

Posted on 24/05/200707/02/2021 By 3arabawy

The parliament discussed Wednesday the crisis at the Mansoura-España Garments Company, as its workers’ sit-in continues, with roughly 150 workers (out of 284 total labor force) still sleeping night after night on the factory floors, with little food and medical supplies.

I still don’t have details about what happened, but it seems the Parliamentary Manpower Committee members grilled the NDP’s Hussein Megawer, the head of the General Federation of Trade Unions, Said el-Gohary, the head of the General Union of Textile Workers, and Nahed el-Ashri, the Labor Minister office director, in the presence of the head of the Factory Union Committee at the Mansoura-España, Magdi el-Maghrabi and his deputy.

I still need to confirm this: The MPs reached a deal with the government by which the Labor Ministry is to force the owning bank Al-Masraf Al-Muttahid to pay the workers the 2006 May Day grants. That would roughly be LE110. There will also be a “social raise” by LE30. (3alawa Igtima3iya is the annual raise in basic salary the workers should receive to cope with inflation, in theory of course. The bank stopped paying the May Day grants and social raises since 1999.)

A two-month ultimatum was given to the bank to pump money into the factory to continue production. If the bank does not demonstrate the willingness to do that, and decides to sell the firm, then the ridiculously low two-month compensation for every year of employment will be REJECTED. The workers had complained their low monthly salaries (the highest of which could reach LE250) meant the final compensation they’ll receive was ultra-low. Instead they were demanding a compensation of ten months for every year of employment. The agreement reached with the government includes the intervention of the Labor Ministry to make sure the compensation is “at least” 10 months.