http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/895/fe1.htm
1 - 7 May 2008
Issue No. 895
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875
A different May Day
Workers in the industrial town of Mahala Al-Kubra have cause to celebrate,
writes Faiza Rady
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Click to view caption
Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif with Minister of Labour Aisha Abdel-Hadi
visiting Mahala workers last month following unrest at the industrial Delta
town; Nasser visiting a factory on May Day during the 1960s; a textile factory
in the 1930s; and industrial action at Mahala last year
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"Over the past two years the struggles of Egyptian workers have changed the
country's political map. For the first time in more than five decades the
government will really have to address workers' demands on May Day rather than
pay the customary lip service to Egypt's 'honourable workforce'", says Mohamed
Al-Attar, a strike leader and veteran worker at the Misr Spinning and Weaving
Company in the northern industrial city of Mahala Al-Kubra where nearly a
quarter of all public sector textile and clothing workers are employed.
On Sunday 6 April, the date of the national strike called in protest against
poverty, low wages and spiralling food prices, street demonstrations in Mahala
were violently repressed by state security forces.
"The Mahala people were demonstrating peacefully," says Misr labour leader
Faysal Nakousha. "In fact, it was women and young people who started marching
and chanting slogans. State security attempted to stop them. They beat one
woman and pushed her to the ground, the youths fought back and street battles
ensued that escalated into riots over the course of the next two days."
In an attempt to calm the situation, Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, Minister of
Labour and Immigration Aisha Abdel-Hadi, Minister of Investment Mahmoud
Mohieddin, Minister of Health Hatem El-Gabali and head of the General
Federation of Egyptian Trade Unions (GFETU) Hussein Mugawer visited the Misr
plant, pledging to increase the workers' wages and improve the town's crumbling
infrastructure.
Though the Misr workers initiated the 6 April strike -- the 6 April coalition
was formed in solidarity with their planned action -- the workers pulled out
when the holding company announced a day before the strike that they would
honour earlier promises to increase salaries.
"Though we had already called off the strike, the cabinet ministers came to
address us because Misr Spinning and Weaving Company is the largest plant in
Mahala and they know this is a workers' town," says El-Attar.
Mahala, a town of 1.5 million people, is home to 250,000 textile and garment
workers. Each worker, on average, supports a family of five, which means that
90 per cent of the town's population relies directly on the textile factories
for their livelihood. "It's the workers, and only the workers, who move things
here," notes El-Attar.
The Misr Company is the largest textile enterprise in Egypt. It employs 27,000
workers, a labour force that has developed a reputation for militancy. "It is
also an emblem of Egyptian economic nationalism since it was established by
Bank Misr under the leadership of Talaat Harb in 1928," says labour historian
Joel Beinin.
The December 2006 Misr workers' strike over unpaid bonuses initiated, and set
the tone, for the unprecedented wave of strikes that have rocked the country
since. The Egyptian daily Al-Masry Al-Yom reported 222 industrial actions in
2006, a figure that more than doubled to 580 in 2007. "Estimates of the number
of workers involved range from 300,000 to 500,000," says Beinin.
Since 2006 the strikes have affected the transport and textile sectors, among
others, with blue collar workers including railway and subway employees,
textile industry workers, ready made garment workers and garbage collectors all
taking action. Their lead has been followed by professionals and white collar
workers. University professors and physicians have threatened nationwide work
stoppages. The largest collective action so far involved some 55,000 property
tax collectors who staged a dramatic sit-in for higher wages in front of the
headquarters of the Council of Ministers in December 2007.
"The actions of Egyptian workers are motivated by dire poverty and untenable
living conditions," says El-Attar. "The straw that eventually broke the camel's
back is the soaring price of staple foods."
The Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics reports an inflation
rate of 16 per cent for March, up from 12 per cent in February. But as
economist Ahmed El-Naggar points out, the aggregate figures mask the price
hikes faced by the poor. The bulk of their income goes on basic foodstuffs
which have recorded some of the highest price increases.
El-Naggar dismisses the current minimum wage of LE300 for university graduates,
LE275 for technical school graduates and LE250 for unskilled labour as
"ridiculous".
"An average worker's entire monthly salary would buy only six kilos of meat. In
1970, it would have bought 37 kilos," he explains.
Nader Fergani, editor of the Global Human Development Report, agrees. "Between
December 2007 and March 2008, the price of food stuffs rose by 100 per cent,"
says Fergani. In 2007 alone the price of tea rose by 50 per cent, flour by 84
per cent, noodles by 150 per cent and lentils by 100 per cent.
The UN World Food Programme categorises Egypt as a low-income, food-deficit
country with high levels of food insecurity and malnutrition. Twenty per cent
of the population, almost 14.2 million people, live below the line set for
extreme poverty, i.e. on less than $1 a day.
In addition to these, says Fergani, "tens of millions of others live below the
global poverty level set by the International Monetary Fund at $2 per day".
"The minimum monthly income for an average family of five should be LE1,650,
yet 75 per cent of Egyptian families make less than that."
The monthly minimum wage demanded by the state- controlled General Federation
of Egyptian Trade Unions (GFETU) is LE800, which falls short of IMF
requirements and will ensure that the bulk of Egypt's workers continue to exist
well below the internationally defined poverty line.
It is against this backdrop that workers are waging their struggle. In March
2007, 14,000 Misr plant workers signed a petition to impeach their local union
committee, denouncing the GFETU as an arm of the government. One measure of the
workers' success is that they established their own local committee, which the
GFETU now recognises as a negotiating partner.
"We forced the GFETU to address us as the legitimate representative of the
plant's workers," says El-Attar. "This is why, this May Day, we feel both free
and empowered.
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