By Hassan Ghoniema
Drivers for Suez Steel have gone on strike and filed a report against the owner of the company after one of their colleagues was suspended.
The drivers are on strike because their colleague Jamal Ibrahim. Raifiq El-Daw, the chairman of Suez Steel Company, has confirmed that the driver was suspended and is now the subject of an internal investigation.
One of the drivers said that they will not end their strike until their colleague is reinstated; the driver added that the chairman of the board of directors had warned that if they continued their strike he would sack them all.
The representative added that the chairman of the board of directors, who is Lebanese, is often insulting towards them, accusing the Egyptian workers of not doing a good job. He pointed out that the worker who was suspended from the company was made an example of because he was an activist and was always demanding workers rights.
Former deputies of the people’s assembly in Suez came to try and persuade the drivers to end the strike. The deputies suggested that they would continue negotiations with the company whilst keeping the drivers up to date.
The steel drivers then went to the police station in Ataqa with a detailed report of their case against El-Daw. They subsequently accused the company bosses of extorting large sums of money and implied a police cover up.
Meanwhile other workers distributed pamphlets around the company demanding that the administration reinstate their suspended colleague. In addition they asked for improved industrial safety for workers, following the death of three men in one day last week.
