In the face of pay cuts and threats of further punitive action striking Esco workers are determined to secure their rights, reports Faiza Rady "We've been on strike for a month now and the company is starting to up the ante. Last Sunday they cut three days from our pay to punish us for striking but we won't cave in because it is our survival that is at stake," says 53-year-old Mohamed Rashed, an Esco textile worker for 33 years. Some 400 workers at the 'Awadem branch of Esco's Qalyoub mill have been on strike since 13 February to protest the government's sale of the factory to industrialist Hashem El-Daghri. They have staged a sit-in and taken over the premises. "Our strike is against privatisation and the government's market policies," says Mohamed Awad Mahran, who has been with the company for 23 years. "Our two demands are clear and we will end the strike when either one of them is met. Either we remain in the public sector -- I estimate that about half of the Esco work force has invested at least 20 years on the job and we don't want to jeopardise our job security and accrued benefits. Or else we are offered a fair early retirement settlement." Last Sunday's pay cuts -- the average monthly take-home pay ranges between LE140 and LE200, an income of less than $2 a day -- antagonised the workers who responded by picketing the Tricot plant, a private enterprise located on the mill's grounds. "Tricot employees have continued to work throughout the strike," explains Ashour Ismail. "But when we received our pay slips with the cuts we informed management that we would block all incoming supplies at the gate. And so we did. Although production continues at the plant they are using up their stock and they'll come to a standstill soon." Following last Sunday's show-down with the workers 'Awadem's general manager, Said Abdel- Fatah, called in the police and state security. Told that the strikers planned to disrupt production at the Tricot plant the two young officers who arrived on the scene refused to interfere -- saying that the workers had not broken any laws. "Where is the government, where are the officials in charge? How am I supposed to solve these problems on my own?" asked Abdel-Fatah. "Only God can help us now." "He is calling for God's help when he has done precious little to solve the problem," said one of the workers. "The managers have all sold out. They pocket fat checks and bonuses in exchange for which they have entered the back-stabbing business." Rather than rely on divine intervention the workers contacted relevant officials. In an effort to publicise their grievances they sent telegrams to the president, the prime minister, the Central Auditing Agency, the minister of investment and the minister of labour. In addition, they sent a cable to the attorney-general questioning the legality of the government's backdoor sale of the plant. Although the new labour law stipulates that the workers are partial owners of the plant -- with a ten per cent equity stake -- they were not informed of the sale. So far neither the attorney-general, nor any cabinet minister, has answered their cables. The workers also contacted the General Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU) though, predictably, the government-controlled union refused to take up their grievances. "The GFTU takes its orders directly from the authorities. They tow the official line and support privatisation," says Mahran. "We reject this so-called union and what it stands for." Not that they expected much from the GFTU, say the workers. It did, after all, collaborate in drafting the new unified labour law which came into effect in July last year and which allows employers to dismiss workers without being required to provide any justification. "The law is really anti-labour," says Kamal Abbas of the Centre for Trade Union Workers' Services (CTUWS), a Helwan- based NGO. "Take Clause 69 of the draft law which says that a worker may be fired if she or he 'does not perform [her or his] essential duties'. It provides no definition of 'essential duties', opening the door to the arbitrary sacking of staff," explains Abbas. Back in Qalyub the workers agree. "I've been with Esco since 1967," says Saleh Mohamed Moussa. "I am old now and I'm spent. I've lost my strength and my health working here. It's not in the new owner's interest to keep me on the job. Why should he? I can easily be replaced by a younger, more efficient worker. All the years I've invested here mean nothing to El-Daghri." Following last week's pay cuts the strikers are bracing themselves for the worst -- next month they may not get paid at all. Under the unified labour law the Qalyub workers' strike is illegal since it does not have GFTU backing. "This law contravenes UN human and social rights conventions to which Egypt is a signatory," says Abbas. "While the addendum to Clause 192 states that Egyptian workers are guaranteed the right to strike in accordance with the Egyptian government's obligations under international conventions, the conditions of the relevant clause seriously limit this right." According to Clause 192 Egyptian workers -- including local union representatives -- have no right to strike without GFTU permission. "This law, in effect, negates workers' right to strike. It also demands that any strike's duration be specified in advance," says Abbas. "It's a unique law, there is nothing comparable in any other country." Yet the Esco workers remain undaunted. "We will go on striking as long," says Moussa, "as it takes to get our rights."
