Egypt
10th of Ramadan textile workers self-manage factory
When their owner fled the country ahead of a jail sentence, the employees at the Economic Company for Industrial Development, faced looming unemployment and the closure of the company's multiple textile factories. A common enough story in Egypt these days, but in this case, the workers instead embarked on a landmark labor experiment.
For nearly a year, three of the Economic Company’s textile factories in 10th of Ramadan City have essentially been running themselves. Granted the right to self-management by a September 2008 court decision, the workers are paying their own wages, handling customer orders and trying to clean up the financial mess left by the previous owner.
Cairo bus strike ends
Cairo bus strike ends after the government gave in to most demands.
Many of Cairo’s public busses have disappeared from the capital city’s street over the past two days. Drivers, ticket-takers and mechanics from 14 of the 19 bus garages in Cairo and Giza governorates are on strike demanding improved working conditions and awaiting tangible responses from the authorities.
Tanta Flax Company strike marks 80th day
Around 200 workers from the Tanta Flax and Oils Company staged a demonstration outside the Ministry of Manpower and Immigration in Cairo today, marking the 80th day of their strike, demanding the re-nationalization of their company. Hundreds of their colleagues back in the Nile Delta have also announced their intention to launch a hunger strike as of tomorrow.
Some 1,000 workers at the company had started their strike on 31 May, raising demands that include reinstating nine co-workers sacked under the pretext of "inciting labor unrest," the provision of workers' profit-sharing which has been overdue for three years, together with the incentive pay withheld since 2003.
One dead, dozens injured as quarry workers in Egypt clash with police
A policeman died and dozens of people were injured when thousands of quarry workers and owners clashed with police in Egypt on Thursday.
The protesters marched into Al-Minya city, in the central province of Al-Minya 210 kilometers south of Cairo, and blocked a bridge spanning the Nile, to protest against a decision by the authorities to impose new duties on quarried rock, security sources said.
Police used teargas to disperse the crowd, but the protesters stoned police, injuring at least four officers, security sources said.
Tanta Linen Company workers in Egypt begin open-ended strike
1000 Tanta Linen Co. workers are striking, led for the first time in Egypt by an official trade union, the Textile Trade Union (TTU).
The workers’ demands are to get paid bonuses on the basis of 2008 wage rate instead of 2003, the accumulated commissions that unpaid since selling the company to the Saudi investor, increasing the meal compensation from 32 L.E to 90 L.E like all other textile companies, a 7% regular subsidy, and the rehiring of their fired fellow workers.
Strikes and occupations across Egypt
Struggle continues developing across Egypt with strikes and sit-ins taking place in six different provinces around the countries.
Many provinces this week witnessed strikes and sit-ins. In Menoufia, more than 3000 workers of Andrama Textiles staged a sit-in inside their factory in protest against not paying them their annual bonuses amounting to 228 working days, and failure to pay them the Prophet Mohammad's Anniversary bonus.
Strikes, occupations and road block in Egypt
Twenty-two employees of the Ghazl El-Mahalla spinning factory continued their occupation of their union offices on Wednesday after negotiations failed to reach a resolution to their demands.
The 22 workers initiated the sit-in at the headquarters of the company's trade union committee in Mahalla on Saturday. The workers are calling for a cancellation of the transfer orders issued against five workers following a protest held at the factory at the end of October, a return of the workers to their original posts and financial compensation for the transferred workers.
Egyptian court sentences 22 to prison for Mahalla riots
An Egyptian state security court sentenced 22 people to between three and five years in jail on Monday for their part in riots which shook the Nile Delta in April.
The riots in the Nile Delta textile town of Mahalla el-Kubra, the worst in the country for many years, began as protests against sudden steep rises in the price of food. Three people were killed and more than 100 people wounded in two days of clashes with riot police.
Ghazl el-Mahalla workers protest privatisation
Workers from the Ghazl El-Mahalla spinning factory held a demonstration Thursday against alleged plans to sell off the Ghazl El-Mahalla company to private investors.
At 3pm some 40 women workers had congregated outside the gate of the factory, located in the Delta town of Mahalla El-Kobra. At 2:45 pm hundreds of workers were filing out of the factory, ahead of the scheduled time for the end of the morning shift at 3 pm.
Mansoura-Espana Garments Company workers on strike
Tuesday 24th June 2008 – Workers at the Mansoura-Espana Garments Company in Talkha are on strike.
Tuesday 24th June 2008 – Workers at the Mansoura-Espana Garments Company in Talkha are on strike. Via Twitter, Arabawy reports that central security forces and trucks have surrounded the factory, and that water cannons have been used on the strikers.
