Tag: workers

Labor updates

Posted on By 3arabawy

Yesterday 1500 workers went on strike at the privately-owned Iron Industries factory in the 6th of October City, over allowances and work conditions. The company is owned by Unsi Sawiris. The strike started by the end of the first work shift at 3pm and was joined by the workers of the second shift, lasting till 8pm. The strike ended with the management promising the workers they’ll respond to their demands with the beginning of the financial year (end of July).

Also yesterday, microbus drivers went on strike in Qalyoubiya, north of Cairo, protesting fines imposed by the province governor, while in the western oasis of Fayoum around 1,000 farmers demonstrated in front of the Fayoum Sugar Factory protesting the company’s delay in buying their crop.

Today, the workers at the state-owned Light Means of Transportation Production Company (which assembles motorcycles and bikes) staged a sit-in at 4pm. The industrial action ended around 7pm.

I don’t know the number of the workers involved (but I think they may be around one thousand). You can click on the banner below to download a statement by the Workers Coordination Committee which includes the workers’ demands.

The WCC had put this statement earlier in the day when the sit-in started. I learned later from a socialist activist that the sit-in ended around 7pm with the govt meeting some of the workers’ demands. Still no details available.

Meanwhile, the Mansoura-España Garments Company workers factory occupation continues. The workers do not trust the deal reached between the MPs, Labor Ministry and the bank owners, so they are continuing their sit-in fearing Al-Masraf Al-Muttahid Bank will shut down their source of income.

Cement workers update

Posted on 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 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.”