Workers from the Egyptian Iron and Steel Company notified the Qasr al-Nil police station on Sunday of an expected organised demonstration in front of the Ministry of Industry and Trade in Cairo’s Garden City area next Wednesday.
The demonstration will be held to demand due payment while the notification was presented by alleged leaders of the strike Mohamed Omar and Mohamed Aly Hassan.
In a statement, the workers said that through their three week-long sit-in, they managed to achieve most of their demands; however, several demands have not been met, including the removal of CEO Zaky Bassiouny, reemployment of unfairly dismissed workers and overdue payments totaling more EGP 90m.
A previous controversy over their representatives created an apparent division among workers, as while Omar claimed to be the leader of the strike, the Ministry of Manpower and General Union announced Chairman of the General Union for Engineering Industries Khaled Al-Feki as the legitimate representative. Both representatives have made conflicting claims about workers’ demands, with Al-Feki alleging that removing the company’s board of directors was “not part of the demands”.
Al-Feki doubted Mohamed Omar’s influence, saying that “he is not the leader and no workers follow his lead”.
“He has a personal problem with the chairman of the company and this is why he is creating disturbance…this protest’s turn-out will be close to the last two protests he organised, about 40 people,” Al-Feki added.
According to the demonstrators, 13,000 workers are owed a total of EGP 192m—of which only EGP 100m has been paid—for 16 months’ worth of production bonuses.
