The Electric Engineers Coalition temporarily suspended their sit-in, to be continued next week if their demands are not met, reports Reem Leila The Electric Engineers Coalition (EEC) announced on Sunday a stoppage to their protest until next week to give electricity officials a chance to meet their pledges. The five-day protest which began on 8 June was peaceful. EEC staged a sit-in to protest against what they said was the administrative and financial corruption prevailing in all electricity sectors. Coalition members were also after fairer salaries, the dismissal of Mohamed Awad, head of Egyptian Electricity Holding Company, (EEHC), as well as the ousting of EEHC leaders due to their affiliation to the former National Democratic Party (NDP). Ahmed Hani of the Talkha Electrical Station and a member of the EEC said that two years ago the Supreme Constitutional Court ruled out that their wages were miscalculated and be disbursed. Until now, only a few have collected the meant incentives which should be added to the original salary. "People believe that electricity engineers receive the highest salaries, although most of us do not get more than LE1,000 per month. We need to collect raises which have been accumulating since the court ruling," Hani said. Some 14 electricity stations which produce two-thirds of Egypt's electricity participated in the sit-in. According to Hani, the minister of electricity promised workers he would meet their financial requirements. The EEC, according to Hani, did not yet decide whether to resume the protest next week or after the end of the thanaweya amma, or high school exams. "We do not want to harm people; we just want our voices to be heard and our demands met," explained Hani. Financial officials at EEHC are currently reviewing workers' files to calculate cumulative incentives, each according to his post. "They must be patient and give us some time," Aktham Abul-Ela, deputy to the minister of electricity, said. "It is not easy to finish this mission in a matter of days. We will start by calculating the cumulative money of senior engineers then the technicians. The calculation process might take a few weeks," Abul-Ela said. Technician Sherif Refit, who works at the Talkha electricity station and is a member at the EEC, had this to say. "We have been waiting for this money for the past two years. We were promised that this problem would be resolved in a matter of days. If the promise is not kept, we might resume the sit-in immediately," Refit said. "It is not just a matter of taking our money which has been delayed," Hani said. "The EEHC has been suffering throughout the past years from administrative and financial corruption. The head of EEHC along with other senior officials must be dismissed. They are making huge amounts of money while the rest of the employees are suffering." The expected protest, according to Hani, will be conducted in the form of shifts. "Engineers and technicians will start the protest after finishing their shifts in order not to affect electricity loads. Engineers will be protesting peacefully inside the stations continuously without going home until our demands are met," Hani said. At the same time, EEC members interviewed by Al-Ahram Weekly denied reports that electricity would be cut for one hour. "How is it that workers who protected power stations during the revolution -- after many were attacked, preventing a potential nationwide power outage -- would cut the electrical current for a whole hour especially during this critical time," said Mohamed Raafat, EEC spokesman. Raafat said cutting electricity or reducing the load for one hour would cause losses estimated at LE1 billion. "This is not our aim. If our demands are not fully met, the EEC will prepare a comprehensive report which singles out the prevailing corruption in the company as a whole, to be presented to Prime Minister Essam Sharaf and the Higher Council of the Armed Forces (HCAF)," said Raafat. A further escalation in protests will be made by the EEC if Sharaf and the HCAF do not take what the protesters say are the needed measures to put an end to the prevailing corruption. "We will wait until a president is elected and will submit to him the report," stated Hani, who provided an example about corruption. He said officials are delegating the maintenance process of the country's power stations to foreign companies for LE250 million annually. "It would have been better to spend this money on training us, the engineers and technicians, on maintenance. Bottom line engineers of EEHC are the ones who are actually working at the foreign company after resigning. So why not train us on this kind of work?" Abul-Ela said none of the previous demands is realistic. "All what the ministry can do for electricity engineers and technicians is to adjust their salaries. Let them say what they want; we cannot respond to each and every single request. At the end we will do what we believe is right."
