[Debate] "Relations between the Labour Movement and the Political Uprising in Post-revolutionary Egypt"

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

<http://bit.ly/HDJ4YJ>
Egypt’s labour movement increases in intensity
After a period of calm, the country's workers are once again up in arms
Marwa Hussein , Friday 9 Mar 2012

In the last couple of weeks workers’ strikes, sit-ins and protests
came back to the surface after a period of calm. The historically
rebellious city of Suez, which saw the first intense clashes and
casualties during the 25 January revolution, once again took centre
stage. Since the start of March, strikes have erupted in places like
the Cleopatra Ceramics factory, Maridive, Suez for Fertilizers, as
well as in steel and sanitation companies.

The voices of Egypt’s workers have risen after Mubarak’s ouster, but
they haven’t always stayed at the same tempo. Since the apogee in
September and October with mega strikes among different vital trade
groups including public bus drivers, teachers and doctors, in addition
to protests in many public and private companies, the movement has
slowed down.

Calls by some political forces and activists for a general strike on
11 February, the anniversary of Mubarak’s ouster, did not meet with
success among workers – so much so that some suspended their strike so
as not to be seen as responding to such calls. “We will be on strike
till we gain our rights because it is a fair cause but we are not part
of the civil disobedience movement that can be bad for Egypt.

That’s why we suspended our strike today,” Mohamed, one worker from
the Egyptian Company for Transporting & Connecting Gas (BUTAGASCO),
told Ahram Online that day. Relations between the labour movement and
the political uprising in post-revolutionary Egypt have as such been
paradoxical. “When calls came from political groups that have no roots
among the workers linking the workers’ demands to political demands,
workers were worried.

They feel they are used in a battle they don’t understand and without
their permission,” explains Hesham Fouad of the Children of the Earth
for Human Rights (CEHR), an Egyptian NGO. Fouad also points out that
fierce media and official attacks on the call for general strike and
civil disobedience has had its effects on workers.

In fact, at moments of political turmoil, workers seem to be
intimidated and their movement dims. “Workers can react in two
different ways to hot political moments. Either they step back,
staying the wave, or they take advantage of the political event to
make noise,” believes Saber Barakat, a former trade unionist and an
activist, believes.

Many of the workers on strike today like the Maridive, Egyptian Post
and Cermica Cleopatra workers among many others have held more than
one strike since 25 January 2011. In each case an agreement was made
between workers and the administration but never subsequently
respected. “In most cases, the workers’ demands are ignored or
promises and even official deals are not honoured; that is what brings
workers back to action. The demands are the same all year long,”
Massoud Omar, a member of the Union of Suez Canal Authority and labour
activist, explains.

Workers’ demands are often linked to having permanent contracts, wage
increases and fighting corruption, especially in public organisms, as
well as wining some rights granted them by law but not by their
administration. In SUMED oil port, for instance, some workers have
been employed on temporary contracts for more than 30 years.

Workers at the Arab Contractors, one of the leading construction
companies in the Middle East and Africa, have been on strike for few
days, raising the same demand. While the workers of the Egyptian Post
are asking for restructuring the wage system as well as removing of
the minister of telecommunications.

In response to the recent wave of protests, the patience of Egypt’s
rulers seems to be expiring. As fake, ambiguous promises don’t have
the same effect, violence was the answer in many cases. According to
Massoud Omar, in Suez, police and army forces used violence in the
case of SUMED, National Steel and court workers. SCAF issued an
anti-strike law in March 2011, in an attempt to stop the scattered
protests – but in vain. “The police and the military couldn’t enforce
this law because of the workers resistance. When the number of
protesters is considerable, they don’t use force,” Massoud Omar
recounts.

-- 
Yoshie Furuhashi
<http://mrzine.org/>