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Egypt army stops protesters entering Suez Canal office Egypt army fires shots in the air to disperse Suez canal workers trying to enter administration office
Egyptian troops fired shots in the air on Saturday to prevent hundreds of protesting employees of Egypt's Suez Canal Authority from storming into its office in Ismailia, witnesses said. Many employees at canal authority offices in the cities of Ismailia, Suez and Port Said have been staging protests for five days asking for higher pay and better work conditions. "The workers were trying to get inside the canal administration office when an officer came out of a tank and fired around 15 shots in the air and dispersed the crowd," one eyewitness from Ismailia told Reuters on Saturday. The workers had resumed the strike which they had suspended, when the agreement which should have been signed begining of June between representatives of the workers and the minister of Manpower and Emigration was never materialized. According to the un-signed agreement, the base salary of the workers should have witnessed a rise by shifting 40 per cent of the bonus to the base salary, a reform that will not effectively increase the workers' wages but should have an important effect on their modest pensions. A canal authority official said shipping in the sea lane, a vital conduit for oil exports and one of the most important sources of foreign currency for Egypt, was not affected. Suez Canal employees were among the civil servants and workers who went on strike across Egypt before the toppling of Hosni Mubarak on 11 February and played a pivotal role in building pressure during the revolution.
