CAIRO: Thousands of workers in the Nile Delta town of El Mahalla El Kobra continued their strike for a third day on Tuesday, erecting a tent city in the center of the factory grounds even as three more strike leaders were arrested by state security.
About 27,000 employees of the Misr Spinning and Weaving Company in Mahalla went on strike on Sunday, about 10 months after a previous strike won them increased wages and benefits.
They say that management has not fulfilled the promises it made after that strike, in December, and that none of their gains have been realized. They say wages have remained very low and bonuses they were promised have not been forthcoming.
An original string of arrests on Monday saw workers Mohamed El Attar, Feisal Naqousha, Magdy Sherif, Mohamed Abu El Isaad, Wael Habib taken in to custody. They were charged with a string of potentially serious crimes including sabotage, unlawful gathering, the destruction of public property and instigating riots.
On Tuesday Khattaby Eid, Ahmed Sharaa, Farag Awad, also workers in Ghazl El Mahalla, were detained and charged with the same offenses.
Sources in Mahalla say that they are not intimidated by the arrests. They vow to continue their strike for as long as it takes, and to prove their determination have begun to erect a tent city in compound’s central Talaat Harb Square.
“We are putting up tents inside the factory grounds, and no one is stopping us, said Gehad Taman, an employee at Misr Spinning and Weaving. “We want to send a message to the management that we are not going anywhere.
“We are bringing our wives and our children, our whole families, here, he added. “We will eat and drink and sleep here and will show them that we are not going anywhere. If we have to we will stay here until Eid.
