Hossam el-Hamalawy
The Cement workers in Tora, Helwan and Suez are refusing an early buyout scheme their Italian management is currently drafting, with the aim of cutting down the labor force.
Instead the workers want to buy the shares of the foreign management, and are proposing they (the workers) run the company themselves, promising to bring down the cement market price from LE400 per ton (expected to rise soon to LE600) to LE200.
The Center for Socialist Studies is organizing a lecture, Tuesday May 22, at 6pm, on: Present and Future Challenges facing Egypt’s Labor Movement.
Speakers will include strike leaders from Cairo, Daqahliya, Mahalla, Beheira, and the 10th of Ramadan.
Members of Parliament will also take part, including: Saber Abul Fotouh of the Muslim Brotherhood, Saad Abboud of the Karama Party, and independent parliamentarian Gamal Zahran.
The Center is located 7 Murad Street Giza.
This is the Mansoura-España Garments Company factory, where around 150 workers out of a total 284 labor force (75% of them are women) have been staging a sit-in since 21 April, demanding their bonuses, unpaid since 1999, amid rumors their company is to be liquidated.
The women left their husbands, children and parents for 29 days now, sleeping on the factory floors, with little food and water supplies.
They are refusing to leave the factory, fearing the owning bank Al-Masraf Al-Muttahid (United Bank) will shut it down with the help of the police.