As Egyptian workers celebrate their new-found freedom of association, some observers believe this freedom could lead the labour movement into chaos, Nesma Nowar reports This year, Labour Day will feel different than any other. Egypt's labour movement has witnessed an unprecedented resurgence when Ahmed El-Borai, minister of manpower and immigration, announced last month the right of Egyptian workers to establish their own labour unions and federations. During the past five decades, labour unions have been kept under the tight control of the government through the state-run Egyptian Trade Union Federation (ETUF) which acted as the only official labour federation in the country. According to Borai's declaration, the Ministry of Manpower and Migration no longer has an authority over any labour union and does not have the authority to accept or reject the formation of new labour unions. Labour unions will be formed by submitting notification to the ministry. This declaration is believed to have put an end to the ETUF which was dominated by members of the former ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) and was disconnected from the interests of workers. Magdi El-Badawi, deputy head of the General Trade Union of Workers in Press, Printing and Media, affiliated to the ETUF, confirmed that he is not against the freedom of association as it is one of the demands of the International Labour Organisation (ILO). However, he laments that the minister did not introduce a complete vision of how this freedom would be implemented; in addition, the minister has launched the freedom of association before changing the trade union law. "All what we want is some regulations to organise the formation of multiple trade unions." According to El-Badawi, the lack of regulations that are suitable for Egypt could lead to chaos. "The country has military factories which are affiliated to the Egyptian Armed Forces; how could pluralism be implemented in such military entities?" he asked. El-Badawi added that business owners could also face a problem of having two or more unions inside one company. "Pluralism is not only about the workers, but also about business owners," he said. El-Badawi further noted that the ETUF has formed a committee in order to discuss the new labour union draft law. El-Borai has sent the law to the federation to give its members the opportunity to express their opinion on it before sending it to the cabinet and the Higher Council of the Armed Forces. On the other hand, the general coordinator at the Centre for Trade Union and Workers' Services (CTUWS), Kamal Abbas, praised El-Borai's new labour polices confirming that freedom of association is a vital demand of the labour movement in Egypt which refuses to be controlled by the government. Moreover, he said that this freedom comes in line with ILO conventions 87 and 98, concerning freedom of association and protection of the right to organise and the right to collective bargaining. Abbas stated that for the past several years, Egypt has been on the ILO's list of 25 countries with the worst labour conditions. He attributed this to the Trade Union Law 35/1976 which restricts the workers' right to form their labour unions. "The ETUF derives its legitimacy from this law and it is an undemocratic state-run federation with no transparency," Abbas told Al-Ahram Weekly. He added that the ETUF forced trade unions to join it. However, after the 25 January Revolution and the ouster of president Hosni Mubarak, workers freely began to form their trade unions. Last March, several hundred workers founded the Egyptian Federation of Independent Unions, Egypt's first independent trade union federation since 1957. The federation includes the Real Estate Tax Authority Employees' Union, the Egyptian Health Technicians Syndicate, the Federation of Pensioners, and the Independent Teachers' Syndicate. "Twenty trade unions have been founded post the revolution," Abbas said. They too are reviewing the new draft law along the Federation of Egyptian Industries. He added that according to ILO measures, any entity with 20 workers as members has the right to form its own labour union, which is then free to join any other broader federation. "We are finally enjoying democracy," he said although he too recognises the need for regulating the process. According to Abbas, the new labour union draft law conforms to the ILO's conventions, which Egypt has ratified but failed to uphold for a long period of time. In a bid to remove Egypt from the ILO's list of the 25 countries with the worst labour conditions, Abbas recommends that the Higher Council of the Armed Forces issues the new trade union law before the first of June so that the Egyptian delegation could present it to the ILO during their annual meeting in Geneva, Switzerland.
