Thousands of workers from Kafr Al-Dawar Spinning and Weaving Company started an open strike on Sunday in solidarity with Mahalla workers demanding minimum wage for all workers, reported the Egyptian Centre for Economic and Social Rights (ECESR).
The striking workers demand the resignation of the company’s Chairman Adel Ebeid and his aid Gaber Gabbass. The strike started with the morning shift and is scheduled to continue with the other shifts.
The workers started a strike last week demanding the late bonuses of 2013, but the strike was adjourned on Tuesday after the company’s management hung a poster that the bonuses would be delivered last Thursday.
Meanwhile, Mahalla workers continued their strike Sunday demanding the resignation of the Abdel-Alim Hassan, chairman of the Holding Company for Cotton Spinning and Weaving, the replacement of Abdel Fattah Al-Zoghby, the commissioner of the Spinning and Weaving Company, with an elected administrative board, and the re-election of the workers syndicate that has been there since 2005.
Al-Zoghby told state-owned MENA that the company’s losses from the strike ranged between EGP 15m and EGP 20m, along with jeopardising deals with the company’s clients.
Dalia Mousa, ECESR coordinator of the workers’ file, said security forces can break up workers sit-ins based on the 2012 law issued by the Supreme Council of Armed Forces that bans strikes and sit-ins, adding that the Protest Law prohibits protests without permits, which makes the workers “trapped” between both laws.
Mousa said security forces have techniques to force the workers to get back to work, such as detaining their leaders, threatening to dismiss the striking workers and even find replacements to the striking workers.
ECESR also reported that workers strikes are ongoing in other sectors.
Dozens of workers from the Egyptian Real Estate Company for Land Reclamation organised a protest in front of the press syndicate demanding to be subordinated to the Holding Company for Land Reclamation and Underground Water that was created in 2012 based on Kamal Al-Ganzoury Cabinet decision number 106. The workers of six companies involved in that sector are planning to organise a protest Wednesday demanding three months late wages that the holding company is responsible for delivering.
Workers of the General Nile Company for Roads and Bridges started a partial strike on Sunday demanding implementation of the minimum wage, the delivery of amounts withheld from salaries to pension and insurance funds, the renewal of the workers transportation fleet, and fixated rates of temporary and daily employment.
