The Alexandria Military Court decided on Tuesday to postpone issuing a verdict on the workers of the Alexandria Shipyard Company to 16 August.
Twenty-seven workers are accused of inciting their colleagues to protest against working in the military institution, among other charges.
The workers had protested the deteriorating pay and inadequate health and safety procedures in the company in May. On 24 May, the company’s administration refused to meet the demands of the workers. They imposed a lockout by security forces, and all production and services at the yard were brought to a halt. Twenty-six of the protestors were summoned by military prosecutors the next day, and one more worker was added as a defendant in the last session of the trial.
The Alexandria Shipyard Company is one of the main industrial projects from the 1960s in Alexandria in the maritime field, and is controlled by the Ministry of Defence. A campaign of solidarity with the workers and against prosecuting them before a military court preceded the court ruling.
The campaign consisted of parties, trade unions, and political movements. It had warned that issuing verdicts by non-civilian courts against “legal and peaceful protests by workers” adds to a “dark page in the history of oppressing the working class in Egypt”.
