EGYPT is gripped by a wave of strikes as the working class continues its revolutonary actions along with the country’s youth that have seen the overthrow of two presidents.
Workers of the Transport Authority in Alexandria launched a strike in Sidi Bishr’s public transportation garage on Saturday demanding the application of the minimum income, their end of service bonuses, and a EGP 200 raise.
Independent Transport Workers Union Spokesman Tarek Al-Behiry asserted that all the demands of the Alexandrian transport workers are legitimate, adding that Cairo workers support their demands.
Cairo transport workers, meanwhile, have halted their strike until the end of April to give the new government of Ibrahim Mehleb a chance to make reforms that would please the workers.
Al-Behiry said that the workers’ conditions would be improved if the Transport Authority returned to its previous position as subordinate to the Ministry of Transport.
Dozens of workers from Tanta Linen and Shebin Spinning demonstrated for over a month against government negligence of their demands to return to work.
A statement issued last Saturday by the Workers Against Privatisation and the Workers Coordination Committees lamented the current conditions for workers at Tanta Linen and Shebin Spinning.
A statement in solidarity with the protesting workers was made by several student movements, including the students of the Revolutionary Socialists, Revolutionary Front, 6 April Democratic Front, El-Midan Student Group, Misr Al-Qawia and others.
The statement called for ‘collaboration efforts’ between the workers and students to pressure the regime to meet their demands, since they ‘share the same suffering’.
Also on Saturday, doctors, dentists and pharmacists launched an open ended strike after repeated one-day strikes by doctors in 2014 failed to achieve their demands.
Conflicting figures on strike participation rates have been provided by the committee organising the strike and the Ministry of Health.
The committee said that the participation rate was 80% nationwide but the ministry reported a smaller figure of only 32%, according to state-run MENA.
Like previous doctors’ strikes, this one is a partial strike, in which only outpatient clinics stop operating but essential and emergency healthcare services are provided to patients.
In addition to the strike, doctors are set to begin collecting group resignations which will be handed to the Ministry of Health when the number of resignations reaches a critical number of 20,000, said Hossam Kamal, the Rapporteur of the Media Committee of the Doctors’ Syndicate.
These resignations will either all be accepted or rejected altogether, Kamal added.
The striking medical professionals said they are continuing the open ended strike until their demands are met.
Health Minister Adel Al-Adawi on Sunday ordered the formation of a committee to hold negotiations between the ministry and the syndicate in order to determine the strikers’ demands and solutions to overcome the crisis.
The last rounds of negotiations were held between the ministries of Health, Finance and the syndicate last December. However, the talks ended without resolving longstanding issues. Kamal had said last month that during the talks the government was ‘speaking and listening to itself.’
The main demands of the strikers include the passing of the draft Staff Law, which is a law that would organise both administrative affairs like training, promotions and working hours and financial affairs for all healthcare professionals.
They also demand that the budget for health be raised to ‘international standards,’ or 9% of the state budget starting from the next fiscal year.
On 6 February, interim President Adly Mansour ratified a different law, one which was rejected by the Doctors’ Syndicate. Kamal said the law that was approved does not include any of the administrative aspects of the draft Staff Law, which would not have incurred any costs on the state.
Regarding the financial aspect of the draft Staff Law, Kamal believes that a simple redistribution of the money available for wages inside the Ministry of Health and the money allocated by the Ministry of Finance to implement the law recently ratified by President Mansour should suffice to guarantee that everyone in the healthcare sector receives reasonable incomes.
The majority of doctors’ incomes are made up of incentives, rather than a fixed salary.
The amount of incentives a doctor receives is based on their performance, which is assessed by the hospital administration, leaving room for personal relations to affect how much a doctor makes. After retiring, a doctor’s pension is determined based on fixed salary.
Doctors have for years been calling for reforms to Egypt’s crumbling healthcare system. They had previously resorted to an open-ended strike in 2012, one that lasted over 80 days.
It ended with the understanding that the draft Staff Law would be passed. In 2013, the draft law was handed to the Shura Council, but the legislature was disbanded before passing the law.
After the negotiations in December failed, doctors went ahead with their plans to strike, starting 2014 with a strike on 1 January and another one on 8 January, in which they were joined by pharmacists. In February, doctors held strikes twice a week, but these strikes had markedly lower participation rates than the ones in January.
On 21 February, doctors held a general assembly meeting and decided then to stage an open ended strike on 8 March and collect mass resignations in parallel with strike. Tensions between the syndicate and the Health Ministry had soared under the tenure of former Health Minister Maha Al-Rabat.
During the general assembly meeting last month, doctors demanded the dismissal of Al-Rabat because she ‘deliberately humiliates doctors and stands against their rights.’ After Prime Minister Hazem El-Bebalwi resigned on 24 January, Al-Rabat was excluded from the new cabinet led by current Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb and replaced with Al-Adawi.
The most recent wave of worker strikes started in February with Mahalla Spinning and Weaving workers, who demanded receiving their late annual bonus.
When payment of salaries was delayed, the workers’ demands then escalated to include the call for minimum income and the resignation of the Chairman of the Textile Holding Company Foad Abdel Aleem.
Mahalla workers, who form the majority of the public sector workers, suspended their strike for two months starting late February after an agreement was reached with then Minister of Investment Osama Saleh that their demands would be met by then.
The main demands of the striking workers and employees of the public sector are receiving minimum income and the payment of late bonuses.
The strikes include workers from seven spinning and weaving companies, the Post Authority, the Transport Authority, employees of the Notary Authority, and others.
A number of officials had accused the striking workers of being incited by the Muslim Brotherhood, a charge strongly refuted by the workers’ representatives.
Mesbah Qotb, the finance minister’s adviser for public outreach, said in late February that Egyptian workers in various public sectors – including the Postal Authority and the Public Transportation Authority – are not eligible for the minimum income system.
Qotb clarified that only employees working in the collections units of the ministries, government localities and service authorities, fall under the categories of those who will receive the announced minimum income increases.
The strike by 6,000 workers at Ceramica Cleopatra entered its second week last Wednesday as workers demand the reinstatement of 23 dismissed workers as well as improved terms and conditions of employment.
Global union federation IndustriALL said: ‘Workers of Ceramica Cleopatra have been at the forefront of struggle in Egypt, leading a wave of protests as early as 2006 when they demanded the right to organise and increased wages.
‘2011 and 2012 saw workers again protesting for similar demands.
‘There appeared to be a resolution of the problems and industrial action was halted in 2012 following the signing of a collective agreement with the owner of the factory, Mohamed Abu Elenin.
‘However despite the fact that the agreement was signed in the presence of the then Minister of Labour, the company failed to implement the agreement and continued to seriously violate workers’ rights.
‘By the end of 2012, workers of the company had met with the Egyptian President as well as the Ministers of Labour and Investment and the employer again promised to accede to the workers’ demands.
‘However over recent weeks the dispute has again erupted following the factory owner pressuring the trade union committee of the company to agree on decreasing workers’ wages.
‘When the union unanimously stood up to the pressure and rejected these demands the owner’s response was further threats, intimidation and threatened legal cases.
‘Under this tremendous pressure the trade union committee were forced into signing letters of resignation.
‘Together with their reinstatement workers demand the payment of outstanding profit shares for 2012 and 2013, the payment of hazardous work allowances, the provision of occupational health and safety equipment, – as well as improved health care and the establishment of a workers’ fund to be paid at the ending of service.’
IndustriALL Global Union Assistant General Secretary, Kemal Özkan, in a message of support to the workers stated: ‘We fully support their struggle for trade union rights and as well as demanding that the employer fully implement the collective agreement and reinstate the trade union committee members we are urging the government to intervene and protect workers from these outrageous threats and fully meet their obligations under ILO Conventions.’
IndustriALL noted: ‘The company is located in Suez City at the southern entrance to the Suez Canal. Suez witnessed early and intense clashes between protesters and security forces during the uprising that ousted Mubarak in 2011.’
