EGYPT: Striking workers take over giant textile plant

On the second day of a 27,000-employee strike, workers take charge of one of Egypt's biggest textile mills. Seven thousand workers controlled one of Egypt's biggest textile mills on Monday (September 24), on what was the second day of a strike by 27,000 employees of Misr Spinning and Weaving in the Nile Delta town of Mahalla el-Kubra. At the factory site on Monday groups of workers beat drums and chanted slogans against Misr Spinning and the management of the government holding company which owns it. Police kept their distance and no managers were present. Workers said representatives of the government-approved union came to visit on Sunday but the workers drove them away. The protesters took to the factory grounds to demand higher wages, more benefits, a larger share of the company's profits and the release of their five colleagues who are accused of having incited the strike and caused the state-owned company 10 million pounds ($1.8 million) in losses on the first day of the stoppage. "We are people with lives to pay for, we have homes and schools and children to pay for. With what will we pay for this? How will we pay if we cannot get our rights? If they take what is rightfully ours what will we pay with? All that we are demanding is our rights," said one of the workers, who asked not to be named. Several claimed that they took home about 150 Egyptian pounds ($27) a month, while the company posted a profit of 217 million pounds in the 2006/7 financial year. "As you see all of these people have been sitting in since the morning, and no-one from the factory administration has come at all to talk to us. And we are going to stay here, with God's will, until we see how we will get our rights, in a peaceful way. And all of these people are going to stay here until we see where our rights are," said another protester. The strike is one of the biggest in a long series over the past year in Egypt, where economic growth has not yet improved the conditions of many low-paid workers. In many cases managers have met most of the demands of the workers within days or at the most a few weeks. But the authorities have shown some signs of alarm at the strikes, usually led by groups of workers independent of the trade unions backed by and loyal to the government. Workers at Misr Spinning and Weaving went on strike in December last year and won a promise that workers would receive annual bonuses equivalent to 45 days' wages. They say the company has not fulfilled its promise and they are now demanding the equivalent of 12 months' basic pay as their share of the 2006/7 profits, representatives claimed.

ITN Source | September 26, 2007

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