Rising tide of workers struggle in Egypt

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Rising tide of workers struggle in Egypt

Posted on August 29 2011 by admin

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From demanding bread to demanding dignity CAIRO – Egypt’s revolution has left Tahrir Square to show up all over the country, including in the Egyptian Trade Union Federation (ETUF), which has seen a board, many of whose members were loyal to the former regime, thrown out and replaced by a new, more revolutionary one.
The spirit of the January 25 revolution has reached the Egyptian Trade Union Federation (ETUF) which was part of the toppled regime and rarely cared for workers’ rights or dignity.
“The revolution has made itself strongly felt inside the union,” said Kamal Abu Eitta, a leading labour activist. “But let me be clear on this: our revolution is not complete yet,” he told The Egyptian Gazette in an interview. The battle inside the ETUF these days is over purging the union and freeing it of what like-minded people call the “remnants of the Mubarak regime”. This seems to be happening nationwide. The ETUF scenario has already been played out inside some of the nation’s insurance companies, aluminium factories and State-run hospitals. The removal of Mubarak, who ruled for 30 years, has emboldened the nation to take action, and serious action at that. “There is a plan to destroy this country’s professional unions,” says Ismail Fahim, the former ETUF Chairman. Abu Eitta, however, hasn’t got time to waste on this argument. He and his colleagues filed a lawsuit against the union, which had been under Government control for years. They won the case a few days ago, kicking out the old board and replacing it. Prior to this, they had founded their own independent labour union to open the way for real representation for the nation’s workers, while the old union did nothing to represent them. “The real challenge for Egypt’s professional syndicates and unions is for these entities to represent their own members,” says Seham Shawadah, a labour unrest specialist. “The sad thing is that they never did this properly because of their total compliance to the former ruling party.” Labour unrest was rife even before the revolution, as hundreds of thousands of workers streamed onto the streets to protest their low salaries and lack of political emancipation. Abu Eitta himself led some of these protests for workers’ rights. A real estate tax collector himself, he led his colleagues during their weeks of protest outside the Egyptian Parliament more than two years ago, to protest low salaries and harsh working conditions. “We are not in the business of demanding higher salaries now,” he said. “We, however, are in the business of demanding more dignity for the nation’s workers.” What spurred Abu Eitta and his colleagues into action against the ETUF was its recklessness in dealing with the workers’ problems. Abu Eitta said the members of the board of the old union turned a deaf ear to the workers’ problems. “Now the workers will never give up their demand for unions that really represent them,” Shawadah adds. Several other segments of society have expressed a similar resolve to establish institutions that satisfy their needs and express their demands. But this has caused discomfort to officials in long-established institutions, including the professional unions, who used to consider themselves the sole representatives of their members. By A’laa Koddous Allah The Egyptian Gazette Wednesday, August 24, 2011 03:24:56 PM 2 Egypt’s daily wage workers form their own independent trade union More than ten million workers in Egypt live day-to-day without contracts or insurance The first independent trade union to represent Egypt’s daily wage workers was approved this week. According to Ashraf Omar El-Deeb, the head of the new union that was approved by The Ministry Manpower and Immigration, “the new body will represent the self-employed workers, casual labourers and unskilled labourers in settling disputes, defining work conditions and securing unified employment contracts.” The union will also provide training and health insurance to its members. Egypt has more than ten million casual and daily wage workers, while the number is even higher when those who work without contracts or insurance is taken in to account. According to El-Deeb, the new union’s membership will mostly comprise carpenters, plumbers, handymen and casual agricultural workers in different governorates/ Ahram Online, Tuesday 23 Aug 2011 http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/19548.aspx ———

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Labour activists invite political party representatives to discuss trade union freedoms

Trade unionists, trade union officials and representatives of political parties came together to discuss the struggle for trade union pluralism and freedoms

On Saturday evening, Kamal Abbas of the Centre for Trade Union and Worker Services held an iftar dinner and panel discussion at the Association for Upper Egypt with a focus on Egypt’s labour scene.

Representatives of several parties, including the Wafd Party, the Egyptian Socialists, the Freedom and Justice Party (affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood), the Tagammu and the Free Egyptians spoke on their party’s agendas regarding labour and specifically the trade unions law currently in the pipeline.

Trade union representatives were also in attendance as well as members of the appointed Egyptian Trade Union Federation (ETUF) steering committee that replaced the dissolved administration.

Of the steering committee’s members, Saber Barakat, a veteran trade union activistand the interim administration’s vice president, and Amina Shafiq, a founding member of the Tagammu Party and a former secretary-general of the Press Syndicate, directed much of the conversation, responding point-by-point to many speakers.

Abbas asked his guests to speak on the dynamics of the relationship between the political class and the working class, paying particular attention to cabinet-approved legislation on trade union freedoms. The importance of trade union pluralism was emphasised more than once in response to calls by the Freedom and Justice Party and the Free Egyptians to focus on unifying the labour the movement in as few bodies as possible.

Barakat responded, arguing that it was hypocritical to seek the formation of dozens of political parties and then tell trade unionists they could not innovate as well.

The relationship between trade unions and political parties was discussed. Some argued that trade unions and parties could never be truly separated. Amr Elchobaki, an Ahram political analyst, argued that in the past Egypt had either political forces without social bases and ideologies or social froces and ideologies without voices in politics. He said the social and political were intertwined, pointing to Latin America, specifically former Brazilian President Lula da Silva, who came out of the unions, and was in essence trained by them.

Though there were some who argued it would be dangerous to have more than one trade union federation, or multiple factory unions, most agreed that pluralism was key and that true effective democracy would grow out of a backdrop of strong trade unions.

They also largely agreed that the dissolution of the ETUF’s administration was only “a fourth of a revolutionary action,” as the general unions still needed to be addressed, and dissolved.

By Yassin Gaber, Monday 22 Aug 2011

http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/19387.aspx

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University professors to start open strike Sept. 17

CAIRO: University professors threatened to start an open strike next month
if the ruling military council failed to approve a draft law to discharge
all university leaderships.

The draft law would pave the way for elections before the beginning of the
academic year.

The strike would start on Sept. 17, the first day of the academic year.

Professors criticized Prime Minister Essam Sharaf for “breaking his promise”
of discharging university leaderships before August and reportedly promising
university presidents in a meeting last Tuesday not to force them to resign.

“We are not prepared to work with these corrupt leaderships and if they
continue in their posts there will be no academic year,” said Hany
Al-Hosseiny, member of the March 9 Movement for the independence of
universities.

The president of Cairo University Hossam Kamel and presidents of Helwan,
Fayoum and Al-Wadi Al-Gadeed universities resigned Tuesday before the end of
their term. However, six other university presidents refused to resign,
while the remaining eight stepped down because their legal term had ended,
giving way to elections.

Minister of Higher Education Moataz Khorshid said in press statements
earlier that he will accept the resignations and that he does not have the
authority to dismiss any university president.

“We believe that the university is being underestimated by the Supreme
Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) and the government. Even the budget
wasn’t increased as promised; they seem to be unaware of the importance of
education,” Al-Hosseiny said.

The decision to go on strike on the first day of the academic year came late
Wednesday and was approved by the March 9 Movement, the Professors for
Reform Movement and the Independent Teaching Syndicate.

“After the revolution we received promises that our demands will be met in
the summer and so we exerted a lot of effort to calm down students and
professors,” said Adel Abdel Gawad, founder of Professors for Reform, a
movement affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood.

“The current situation is frustrating and we were blamed by our colleagues
that we gave up, but now it won’t be a one-day strike; we will hold a lot of
events until our demands are met,” he added.

University presidents will be chosen through an electoral college system
comprising a number of professors according to the size of the teaching
staff of each faculty, while deans of faculties and department heads will be
chosen through direct elections.

The Supreme Council of Universities held a meeting on Thursday to approve
the new system of choosing leaderships through elections.

A number of deans and heads of departments were reluctant to resign raising
fears among professors of chaos when the academic year begins.

“We will have elected leaderships and appointed leaderships and we aren’t
sure if they will get along. This can’t happen,” Al-Hosseiny said.

A number of employees at Cairo University led by ex-National Democratic
Party members held a protest to ask Kamel to retract his resignation.

Professors from across Egypt are set to hold an emergency meeting at Cairo
University on Sept. 11 to discuss the current stand-off.
CAIRO: University professors threatened to start an open strike next month
if the ruling military council failed to approve a draft law to discharge
all university leaderships.