Tag: workers

4th Annual WCCTUR Conference: Workers and Social Resistance

Posted on By 3arabawy

The Workers’ Coordinating Committee for Trade Union Rights (WCCTUR) is to hold its fourth annual conference, titled “Workers and Social Resistance,” this Friday 11 May at the Cairo Press Syndicate.

Friday Conference Timetable:
10am to 10:30am: Registration
10:30am to 10:45am: Opening note, by Saud Omar of the WCCTUR
10:45am to 12:45pm: First session
“The Attack on the Right to Health Insurance”
The session will be chaired by Dr. Abdel Galil Mustafa, and coordinated by Muhammad Abdel Salam. The speakers will include: Dr. Ra’ouf Hamed and Dr. Shoukri Azer
12:45pm to 1:45pm: Break
1:45pm to 3:30pm: The Second Session:
“Labor Protests: Indications and Results”
The session will be chaired by Magdi Helmi, and coordinated by Ad-Doustour labor correspondent Mustafa Bassiouny. Speakers will include labor lawyer Khaled Ali. Workers who took part in the recent wave of strikes will also give their testimonies.
3:30pm to 4:30pm: Lunch
4:30pm to 6pm: The Third Session:
“The Right to Fair Wage”
The session will be chaired by Dr. Ibrahim el-‘Eissawi, and coordinated by Elhami el-Merghani. Speakers will include Ahmad el-Naggar.
6pm: Recommendations
The organizers will draft the recommendations of the conference into a statement… followed by honoring the Center for Trade Union and Workers’ Services, and labor leaders Ahmad Khedr and Abdel Moneim Karawya.

Labor updates

Posted on By 3arabawy

The food processing workers sit-in enters its third day in Suez, despite security intimidation, while in Cairo the head of the regime-controlled General Union of Transportation Workers Wagih Mustafa Amin accused “Kefaya elements” of standing behind the latest public transportation strike.

Cement workers stage sit-in south of Cairo

Posted on By 3arabawy

More than 500 workers at el-Qawmiya Cement Company in Helwan staged a sit-in Sunday morning, in front of the office building of the CEO Nabil el-Gabri, demanding their full annual bonuses.

The workers were entitled to a total profit share of LE30 millions (roughly 10% of the LE306 million profits made by the company the previous year). In addition to the cash sums, part of this money should be allocated to the housing and social services. The management only paid LE13 millions, triggering industrial action from the workers today. The Factory Union Committee apparently lobbied for only another LE7 millions, which was refused by the workers, who demanded the full remaining LE13 millions.

The director of the Helwan State Security Bureau Officer Ashraf Shura showed up at the factory in person, and negotiated with the workers. The sit-in was disbanded around 5pm, after Shura promised the workers their demands will be met. The workers also chanted against their Factory Union Committee officials, calling for their impeachment.

[Above: An undated photo of the director of Helwan’s State Security bureau Officer Ashraf Shura, seen above in brown plainclothes. He was involved in torturing labor writer Mostafa Bassiouny, by beatings and electric shocks in 1999. Photo courtesy of Egyptian blogger Ahmad Abdel Fattah.]