Egypt: Labouring with mistrust

north africa | workplace struggles | non-anarchist press Wednesday May 02, 2007 20:09 by Karim El-Khashab - Al-Ahram Weekly

Tuesday is Labour Day. But who's celebrating, asks Karim El-Khashab

President Hosni Mubarak's annual speech, scheduled today but marking Labour Day on Tuesday, will be delivered against a backdrop of increasing industrial action. Sit-ins and strikes have taken place in
Cairo, Daqahliya and Mansoura, with three workers from the latter hospitalised as a result of going on a hunger strike.

In Mansoura workers at the public-owned Egyptian Company for Dairy Products staged a sit-in Tuesday to protest plans to merge the company with two others. The plan, they said, is part of a strategy to reduce benefits and lay off more workers. Mohie El-Beltagui, a company employee, told Al-Ahram Weekly that the number of workers at the factory
had already been slashed from 800 to 40, with many forced to take early retirement.

In Tibeen, 200 workers at the Arab Sand-Brick Company continued their 12-day strike in protest against plans to liquidate the company. They were joined by Mansoura-Spain Company workers, who fear that their own company might be slated for closure. Workers at both factories complain that they have yet to receive the benefits promised by the Ministry of Labour, following recent negotiations with their factories' management.

The Ministry of Labour has yet to comment on these recent developments, saying only that they are coordinating with Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif's office as they look at ways of improving the conditions of workers by
providing better healthcare and enhanced job security for those who are currently employed on temporary contracts.

Such statements hold little sway with workers however.

"Workers have reached a boiling point, something I have never seen before," says Mohamed Attar, who is among the leaders of the campaign by Mahala textile workers to impeach their representatives at the National
Federation of Trade Unions (NFTU) following their failure to support the workers' strike in December. He cited transportation and housing costs as among the workers' concerns, issues that have been raised with NFTU officials but to no avail. "We have clearly spelled out the things we want dealt with on many occasions, but the unions' and the ministries' response is to make promises that they then break."

The problem, insists his colleague, Hassan Fahmi, begins with the trade unions which have repeatedly failed to represent the interests of their members.

"Three quarters of union officials are not elected by workers. They are appointed because the state security wants them or else they are connected to management and work to protect management interests," says
Fahmi.

In the most recent trade union elections many candidates were barred from standing, leading to further deterioration in relations between union officials and those they purport to represent.

In Mahala, workers are hoping to force the hand of union officials by invoking Law 35/1976 in an attempt to impeach their trade union representatives by sending individual letters of resignation from their union with the aim of creating an independent parallel organisation.

"We decided on this action," says Attar, "only after they refused to act on the five basic demands we have repeatedly presented."

Among the workers' demands is an increase in bonus payments to the equivalent of 25 per cent of pay. This, says Attar, is essential for employees whose basic salary is LE250 a month. "Without these bonuses we can barely survive, let alone feed a family."

Other outstanding issues concern transportation and housing. Workers often have to commute up to three hours to reach their factory, a situation that could be alleviated by providing buses to transport
employees. But while union and ministry officials responded positively to suggestions that buses be provided, nothing has yet been done, says Attar.

The same applies to housing. While housing facilities do exist next to the factory for workers and their families, they are far from adequate.

"We have asked that these buildings be extended to house more workers without taking up more land," says Fahmi. Yet despite officials showing initial enthusiasm for the idea, little has been done to solve the
problem of housing for workers in Mahala or elsewhere.

With no sign of progress in their negotiations with the government, and no response to the letters of resignation from the union, textile
workers are now petitioning the General Prosecutors office in Mahala. They are in the process of filing complaints against the head of the Federation of Trade Unions, the head of the Textile Union and Minister of Labour Aisha Abdel-Hadi.

The appearance of Abdel-Hadi's name on the list came as a surprise to many, given her reputation before being appointed to the cabinet as a champion of workers' rights.

"The minister has changed almost 180 degrees since taking office. She used to be an activist working on behalf of the workers and now is a conservative working on behalf of the government," says Attar.

Abdel-Hadi refused to comment beyond saying that she has always promoted
the workers' best interests, then and now.

As tensions continue to rise, workers in Mahala and elsewhere continue to weigh their options.

"We have not yet decided whether to take any action during the Labour Day celebration. That decision has to come from the factory floor," says Attar.

He does, however, note the increased security and police presence in Mahala, and has little hope that security forces will end their harassment of labour organisers anytime soon. The workers, though, seem
unfazed by the security presence, and remain determined to get their message across to the government in any way they can.

"We have tried almost all of the legitimate channels we can think of," says Attar. "The state has to respond positively soon, before workers here lose all hope in them."