(File photo by Daily News Egypt)
The owners of the Bolvera spinning and weaving plant in Alexandria have threatened to withhold monthly wages from workers if they fail to show up for work on Saturday.
The employees at Bolvera began a strike this week to protest corruption they see in the plant’s management. In particular they have grievances over a missed bonus, equivalent to a month’s wages, which was received by the rest of the weaving industry, and the fact land belonging to the plant was sold to a businessman.
The corruption began when the plant became increasingly privatised said Said Azzedine, a member of the People’s Committee for the Defense of the Revolution in Alexandria, who has been communicating with the striking workers. Now the workers are demanding that “the company is to turn back to an official state company and not a private company.”
A source from Alexandria who preferred not to be named because his family had been involved with Bolvera for decades, said that over the years the state began to sell off pieces of the company bit by bit, until now it resembles nothing of its former self.
This week the workers blocked Al-Siauf Road for several hours, one of Alexandria’s main thoroughfares. Ten workers have also been on hunger strike for the past three days.
