Egypt: Wildcat strikes and protests continue

Since 2003 there has been a sharp increase in industrial action in a country where strike action is illegal and trade unions function as little more than appendages of the state and security forces. Other sections of workers involved in sporadic strikes and protests over the past year include train drivers, hospital journalists, engineers, truckers and miners.

The immediate causes of the strikes are nonpayment of wages and bonuses, inflation and falling social benefits. These are a key aspect of the austerity measures being implemented by the government of President Hosni Mubarak. In addition, the price of state-subsidized fuel was increased by 30 percent last year, leading to a further impoverishment of the working class and rural poor.

All trade union activity is systematically monitored by the officially sanctioned General Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU). The federation is made up of 23 labour bodies that control more than 2,000 local committees. These regulate some 4.8 million workers, mostly employed in the public sector, in various industries including textile production and transportation. State employment accounts for around 10 percent of Egypt’s workforce of more than 22 million. Most of GFTU’s leaders are members of the ruling National Democratic Party.

A bitter five-day strike was mounted in December last year by 27,000 workers at the state-owned Al-Mahallah Spinning and Weaving Company. On January 30 this year, 4,200 workers at the Misr Shebin Al-Kom Spinning and Weaving Company on the Nile delta began strike action to demand seven months worth of unpaid bonuses. Within days of the strike beginning, a hundred of the workers began a hunger strike.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2007/feb2007/egyp-f24.shtml