Egyptian workers occupy factory during massive strike - dpa

By Pakinam Amer
First Published: Sep 26, 2007

Cairo - Thousands of Egyptian textile workers have taken over control of one of the state's biggest mills overnight, the workers' leaders said on Wednesday during a massive strike over low wages and overdue benefits.

"My salary is now 600 (Egyptian) pounds after a service of 45 years in this factory," says 59-year-old al-Sayed Habib, a leader of the protestors. Habib and his family have spent the last three days huddled around the Mahala al-Kobra factory of Misr Helwan Spinning and Weaving Company which he considers a second home of sorts.

"I spent my life in this factory and I own nothing except my salary," Habib said, adding that monthly salaries for the textile factory range from 100 to 600 Egyptian pounds (18 to 107 US dollars).

The workers are demanding 150 days' worth of profit sharing in addition to bonuses as promised by the factory administration. They also want a larger share of the company's profit.

The resignation of the head of the Textile Holding Company Mohsen al-Jilany, Misr Helwan chairman Mahmoud al-Gibali, in addition to the dismissal of the workers' syndicate council head is also on top of their demands.

Despite being confined to the facility, the strike of 27,000 Egyptian textile workers in northern Gharbiya province has produced a shockwave among other blue-collar workers and rights advocates and has recieved extensive local media coverage.

The government is afraid that the impact of this strike would spread to other factories, according to independent observers. Government sources told a newspaper earlier that if the state responded to the workers' demands, this could encourage other workers to follow their lead.

The incident revived the memory of a 2006 mass protest where laborers in both major plants and low-paid industries organized massive strikes.

Truckloads of security forces have been cordoning off the site bursting at the seams with protestors, their families and relatives. Establishing a makeshift tent city inside the factory, the workers thronged the facility's yards day and night during the holy month of Ramadan during which Muslims fast and make supplications to God.

In addition to fasting during the day, the male and female workers hold rallies, pray and break their fast every evening on the site and jointly bang on plastic barrels in a kind of a symbolic snub. The drums signal a warning to the authorities, according to Habib. "These drums are for waking people up, they signal danger."

"Officials are deliberately giving us the cold shoulder, but we will take back our right if we continue standing," he said. Behind him, workers chanted: "We will not bow, we will not fear. We cannot afford plain bread."

An opposition member of parliament, Hamdein Sabahi, criticized the attitude of the company's shareholders. "There is a crisis due to the absence of trust. The workers do not believe that their money will be paid as the company promises."

Newspaper reports had said that the holding company head al-Jilany had already given the workers a 40-day payment. But the workers say they received only a 20-day payment, adding that the company refused to negotiate the remaining wages until early November when the company's general assembly meets.

By November, Ramadan and the financially-demanding Muslim feasts would be over, said Habib, a father of three. "Schools have also opened and we have no money."

Workers said that they have neither received reconciliatory bids nor been approached by company negotiators.

According to Sabahi, some workers are seriously considering setting up a self-directed administration as an act of defiance.

Harassment from security police has been reported. On Monday, eight Egyptian textile worker leaders were arrested. They were accused of fomenting protests and causing damage to public property. The authorities claimed that the strike cost the factory a 100-million-pound loss. They were released late Tuesday.

"(The police) also sends its scaremongers into the crowds of workers to frighten them by saying that the security forces waiting at the gates could strike any time," Habib said.

On another note, Sabahi denied that the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood had incited the strike, describing this as "a petty excuse by the government authorities."

"They think squeezing in the Muslim Brotherhood into the problem justifies a crackdown. They want this rights issue to be an extension of the war between them and the Muslim Brotherhood," Sabahi said.

Link: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/233332/Egyptian_workers_occupy_factory_during_massive_strike