After two weeks of negotiations, railway workers were promised a raise, Nesmahar Sayed reports "Trains are running according to schedule at the Ramses Railway Station," said Ramadan El-Guindi, chairman of the Syndicate for Railway Workers. During the past two weeks, dozens of train and metro drivers have been demanding a raise and safety guarantees they requested in November. Some workers took their demonstration to the rails, obstructing train routes while others expressed their discontent by reducing their speed to 30km per hour from the normal 80km. To diffuse the crisis, Minister of Transportation Mohamed Mansour decided to increase bonuses to LE70 million during the fiscal year 2009/2010 in response to the demands of more than 50,000 workers in the Railway Association. Workers will receive 50 per cent of the allocated bonus in July while the remainder will be distributed in January 2010. "According to the minister's decision we persuaded the workers of the efficacy of the deal and the majority agreed," El-Guindi told Al-Ahram Weekly. On 20 January, the Ramses Railway Station witnessed the first day of the strike followed by negotiations involving Railway Authority operators, the authority's chairman, ministers of transportation and manpower, and drivers. On that day rail operators turned traffic signs to red and train schedules were delayed for four hours. Only then did Aisha Abdel-Hadi, minister of manpower, promise to take up their demands with the minister of transportation. In November workers put forward their demands to the chairman of the authority, which included the implementation of safety procedures and a 25-piastre raise per kilometre. The value of the existing bonus was deemed insignificant with the ongoing increase of prices. The demands were turned down by Mahmoud Sami, chairman of the Railway Authority, claiming the financial budget was too restricted to implement a pay hike. Minister Mansour's decision came as a relief to workers who were planning a massive strike on Sunday, according to El-Guindi. "Workers were acting according to legal demands through legal channels which is the syndicate, and the decision proves the seriousness of officials in dealing with the issue," El-Guindi said. "No, they have other legal channels and the strike is not one of them," Walid Warda, the official spokesman of the Railway Authority, told the Weekly. He said the annual budget is approved by the Ministry of Finance a year earlier, "which is why the bonus did not increase previously," Warda added. But the demands were raised after the budget was approved. Warda said the Railway Authority had already disbursed a 10 per cent bonus to all workers in November last year. "If they had asked for another raise this would have been taken into consideration." The only legal channel available, Warda added, was the Railway Syndicate which is a partner in managing the Railway Authority by being a member in the board of managers, and represented in the authority by three members -- the chairman of the syndicate, the treasurer and a member of the syndicate. "All the details are discussed among the members of the board. The decisions are then discussed at a higher level among the board of directors," Warda said. El-Guindi and Warda differ in their points of view on how to go about expressing their demands but they agree that passengers have the right to depart and return on trains on time and have a comfortable journey. "We have to wait until July and my role is to calm the workers down until our demands are met," El-Guindi said.
