textiles
News and articles about work, policy and workers' struggles in manufacturing, research and development, mining and materials around the world.
Wildcat strike in Ghazl el-Mahalla, Egypt, 29th September 2007
Pictures of the wildcat strike of the victorious strike of thousands of textile workers in Ghazl el-Mahalla, Egypt. Photos, by Omar Said, taken from here.
Mahalla strikers score victory
Government negotiators and labor representatives resolved early on Saturday a week-old labor dispute that had paralyzed Egypt’s largest textile factory by largely agreeing to the workers’ demands, the strike committee said in a statement.
Workers’ representatives of the Misr Spinning and Weaving Company in Mahalla el-Kubra, north of Cairo, met with the official government union and they agreed to grant the workers’ an additional 90 days pay, and negotiate over further increases.
1932: The Vichuga uprising
In April 1932 at Vichuga, Ivanovo Industrial Region (IPO), USSR, 16,000 textile workers struck at several factories and temporarily took control of the town until the uprising was crushed by both heavy repression and promises of reform from central Soviet command.
Part of a wave of unrest which hit the USSR in the IPO, Lower Volga region, the Urals, Western Siberia, Ukraine and Belorussia, the strike was one of the most significant of the 1930s, winning reforms nationally as a result of the threat it posed to the Soviet authority.
Statement from Ghazl el-Mahalla's "7th of December Movement- Workers For Change"
In December, Egypt saw a wildcat strike of 27,000 people at the Ghazl el-Mahalla textile factory. As militancy has spread across and beyond the sector in the region, workers in Ghazl el-Mahalla have formulated the following statement.
This is a rough translation of one of two statements distributed by, the previously unknown, "7th December Movement - Workers for Change" in Ghazl el-Mahalla, 19th and 20th June 2007.
Vietnam: Further wildcats in the garment sector
Over 800 workers at a Taiwanese-owned garment company in Ho Chi Minh City struck work Wednesday demanding lower workload and social welfare coverage.
Thanh Nien Daily reported:
The workers at Top Royal Flash Ltd. said they had been forced to work overtime four or five days a week for the past four months. Though the company had deducted part of their salaries to pay social insurance for half a year, it did not send the amount to the authorities, according to the workers.
Al-Jazeera program on Mansoura-España Garments Company struggle
The Everywoman program on Al-Jazeera takes a look at the struggles of Egyptian women working at the Mansoura-España Garments Company who have been occupying their factory for over a month for better pay.
Aired June 1st 2007 and includes an interview with Hossam el-Hamalawy writer from the 3arabwy blog.
Vietnam: Wildcat strike at garment factory
Some 350 workers at a Taiwanese-owned garment company in central Vietnam struck work Monday demanding higher wages and lower workload.
Thanhniennews.com reported that the workers of Sportteam Corporation said they were paid VND490,000 (US$30) monthly but had to work up to 14 hours daily. They also had to work overtime and night shifts regularly without extra pay.
Vietnam regulates a minimum wage of VND710,000 ($44) for foreign invested sector.
Egypt: Garment workers' sit-in reaches 26th day
Report from Egyptian blogger Hossam el-Hamalawy on a sit in of over 150, mostly female garment workers at the Mansoura-España Garments Company.
Taken from the 3arabawy blog by Egyptian writer Hossam el-Hamalawy
I travelled Wednesday to Talkha in the Nile Delta province of Daqahliya to follow up on the Mansoura-España Garments Company workers’ sit-in, which has entered its 26th day…
Kafr el-Dawwar workers are in the same trench as Ghazl el-Mahalla
A very significant statement of solidarity with the Ghazl el-Mahalla workers from the workers at Kaffr el-Dawwar, April 2007.
They promise to conduct political actions in solidarity with Mahalla workers if they will take further industrial action, and stress the need to struggle not only against their bosses but also the official unions which are obstructing their struggle.
Egypt: Mahalla crackdown day two
An update from an Egypt-based libcom poster on the state repression of the workers movements in Mahalla on the Nile Delta.
At least four central security trucks with police have been deployed around Mahalla's train station, another six are deployed around the textile company's compound. Plainclothes security agents are everywhere inside the company and in Mahalla. Strike leaders, known to the security services, have been banned from entering the factory when it's not their work shifts.
