Employees of the Tanta Linen, Flax and Oil Company wrapped up a two-week strike on Tuesday, Nesmahar Sayed reports, though questions remain about the company's future In Cairo, close to downtown, hundreds of workers had been blocking Hussein Hegazi Street, part of a sit-in conducted for over two weeks in protest against what they claimed to be unfair treatment by their employer. They said they had not been receiving their salaries since the end of 2009. Furthermore, unlike other company employees, they claimed they do not receive a share of the annual profits, nor an annual salary increase. The straw that broke the camel's back was the suspension of nine employees for voicing the demands of their co-workers. The 800 workers of the company in question, Tanta Linen, Flax and Oil Company, have been dissatisfied for the past five years since the company was privatised and sold to a Saudi investor, Abdel-Ilah El-Kaaki. During that time they have held several strikes. The situation worsened in early January when a strike was called in Tanta. Production at the company came to a standstill and has remained so since. To make their voices heard, the workers moved their sit-in to Cairo. On Monday they demonstrated in front of the People's Assembly. Finally, after two weeks of striking and tough negotiations between the workers, the Labour Union and the Ministry of Manpower and Immigration, the strike was brought to an end on Tuesday. The ministry said it would pay the workers a total of around LE1,550, the sum of the salaries they are due for January and February 2010. It would also increase early retirement compensation to LE40,000. Some LE25,000 will be paid by the investor and the rest will be paid by the ministry's emergency fund and the Labour Union. In previous negotiations, the minister had set compensation at LE35,000. Workers demanded that no limit be placed on the number of those allowed to retire, and that there should not be any age restriction. Many workers are relieved the strike has ended. They were in a sorry state, with many depending on compassionate passersby for food and drink. Their children have left their schools to work and feed their families. According to Said El-Gohari, head of the Spinning and Weaving Syndicate, the factory concerned is the largest for linen in Egypt. It has multiple production lines producing oil, wood and yarns from the flax plant. These products are then sold locally and exported. "This factory was sold for only LE83 million, a small sum considering the capacity of the plants," he said. According to El-Gohari, the root of the problem was that when the company was privatised in 2005, the government did not consult the syndicate on the workers' rights. Minister of Manpower and Immigration Aisha Abdel-Hadi admitted that the contract by which the company was sold does not guarantee any rights to workers. El-Gohari added that even the farmers who delivered their crops to the factory did not receive their dues. Ahmed Mustafa El-Shinnawi, a farmer who planted 15 feddans with flax for the first time last season regrets having done so. He delivered 50 tonnes of flax worth some LE75,000, but reports, "I have not received a penny from the company, nor has any of the other farmers." Salah Khalafallah, 55, who has been working at the factory for the past 34 years, was part of the group involved in negotiations with the ministry. He said that according to Abdel-Hadi, the company's Egyptian CEO, Mohamed El-Sehey, had sent a fax requesting the liquidation of the company. Khalafallah questioned why the company was being liquidated. "The factory had been doing very well and making profit," he said.
