CAIRO: A panel of trade unionists from across the country gathered at Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies on Tuesday to discuss the wave of strikes that has swept Egypt in the last year, as well as their campaign to form new unions independent of state control.
The speakers included Alexandria-based organizer Ahmed Abdullah, Mohamed Darwish, of Assiut, a food industry worker; Abdel Latif Youssef, also of Assiut, a worker in a pharmaceutical factory; and Ali El Badry, an organizer, journalist and member of El Geel Democratic Party.
Labor activism has been spreading in the past 12 months, and many strikes have succeeded in securing industrial workers new benefits from state-run enterprises. These successes have occurred even as the state has cracked down on other opposition groups and figures, such as jailed presidential candidate Ayman Nour and the officially banned Muslim Brotherhood.
Despite these successes, workers have complained of little support from official opposition parties and influential figures.
“Worker leaders say that prominent opposition leaders and the Egyptian intelligentsia have not been supportive enough of their movement, said Saad Eddin Ibrahim, chairman of Ibn Khaldun Center. “For this reason we here at Ibn Khaldun are very excited to host these labor leaders and to begin working with them.
The organization of the strikes was a central topic of the evening. Each speaker strongly objected to the competing claims of responsibility made by Communists such as organizer Mahmoud Amin El Alim and the Muslim Brotherhood, each of which they say is now trying to take the credit for a grassroots workers’ movement.
“I take issue with the Mahmoud Amin El Alim’s claims, said Ahmed Abdullah, of Alexandria. “Communism has failed in its own countries and there is no way it could ever be successful here. We live in a new world and an age of globalization and multi-national corporations, and we have to accept that and work with it. I think that most workers had never even heard of El Alim and the rest of the Communists before he ever made his statements claiming responsibility for their strikes. He is totally wrong.
The shut-down of the Helwan-based Center for Trade Union and Worker Services (CTUWS), an independent labor rights group formed in 1990, also loomed large in the meeting.
Over the past month, the group has seen its branch offices in Nagaa Hamadi and Mahalla closed by the government. This week the state issued an order to shut its headquarters in Helwan, which has sparked an outcry from international rights groups and a sit-in by local human rights and labor activists.
According to the panelists, in the absence of independent labor unions, the CTUWS had long acted like one, performing many of the functions of a union and going to bat for workers during strikes.
“Because we haven’t got free labor unions in Egypt, the Center used to act like one, said Abdullah. “It used to help workers, and speak out on behalf of those with grievances, either individually or collectively.
The crackdown on the CTUWS comes amid a season of labor unrest in Egypt, which began with the high-profile Ghazl El-Mahalla textile strike in December, which involved 27,000 workers. They went on strike to demand their annual bonuses, equivalent to two months’ pay, even though their local union representatives opposed the strike and supported the position of the state-run factory’s management. The Mahalla strike ended with a compromise, and workers received a 45-day bonus. Still energized from the strike and angry at the position taken by the local union, the Mahalla workers collected 13,000 names on a petition demanding the impeachment of their local representatives.
The petition was delivered to the General Federation of Trade Unions in January. If the Federation would not agree to impeach their representatives and hold new elections, the Mahalla workers have threatened to secede from the body and form an independent union. It would be Egypt’s first since President Gamal Abdel Nasser created the General Federation in 1956.
Worker leaders accuse the General Federation of Trade Unions of being dominated by the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) of President Hosni Mubarak. The Federation is made up of 23 large unions that cover each of the country’s public sector industries. Of those, six elect their leaders by a process that activists say strongly favors NDP candidates, and the other 17 are lead by officials appointed by the Ministry of Labor, Aisha Abdel Hady.
“When the government created the Federation back in 1956, workers were happy at first, said Abdel Latif Yousef, the Asyut food industry organizer. “But then they realized that the Federation was like a clone of the child they really wanted, and that it had nothing to do with what they had been dreaming of.
“It is a structure without a spirit, a giant beast with no soul, he added. “It is a police man that watches all the workers in Egypt, and a way for the government to oppress and spy on the working class.
According to Ali El Badry, an organizer and activist with El Geel Democratic Party, workers plan to unveil an independent union on May 1 and will hold a demonstration in Tahrir Square in conjunction with protests in several provincial capitals.
“We are not afraid of the ruling regime, he told the audience. “We live our lives with our suitcases packed, ready for them to come and take us to prison at any time.
“From here inside the Ibn Khaldun Center, I want to send a message to Aisha Abdel Hady, he added. “You will pay a price for rigging last fall’s union elections. We will show you who is really in charge of the Egyptian labor movement.
