Workers in the industrial town of Mahala Al-Kubra have cause to celebrate, writes Faiza Rady "Over the past two years the struggles of Egyptian workers have changed the country's political map. For the first time in more than five decades the government will really have to address workers' demands on May Day rather than pay the customary lip service to Egypt's 'honourable workforce'", says Mohamed Al-Attar, a strike leader and veteran worker at the Misr Spinning and Weaving Company in the northern industrial city of Mahala Al-Kubra where nearly a quarter of all public sector textile and clothing workers are employed. On Sunday 6 April, the date of the national strike called in protest against poverty, low wages and spiralling food prices, street demonstrations in Mahala were violently repressed by state security forces. "The Mahala people were demonstrating peacefully," says Misr labour leader Faysal Nakousha. "In fact, it was women and young people who started marching and chanting slogans. State security attempted to stop them. They beat one woman and pushed her to the ground, the youths fought back and street battles ensued that escalated into riots over the course of the next two days." In an attempt to calm the situation, Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, Minister of Labour and Immigration Aisha Abdel-Hadi, Minister of Investment Mahmoud Mohieddin, Minister of Health Hatem El-Gabali and head of the General Federation of Egyptian Trade Unions (GFETU) Hussein Mugawer visited the Misr plant, pledging to increase the workers' wages and improve the town's crumbling infrastructure. Though the Misr workers initiated the 6 April strike -- the 6 April coalition was formed in solidarity with their planned action -- the workers pulled out when the holding company announced a day before the strike that they would honour earlier promises to increase salaries. "Though we had already called off the strike, the cabinet ministers came to address us because Misr Spinning and Weaving Company is the largest plant in Mahala and they know this is a workers' town," says El-Attar. Mahala, a town of 1.5 million people, is home to 250,000 textile and garment workers. Each worker, on average, supports a family of five, which means that 90 per cent of the town's population relies directly on the textile factories for their livelihood. "It's the workers, and only the workers, who move things here," notes El-Attar. The Misr Company is the largest textile enterprise in Egypt. It employs 27,000 workers, a labour force that has developed a reputation for militancy. "It is also an emblem of Egyptian economic nationalism since it was established by Bank Misr under the leadership of Talaat Harb in 1928," says labour historian Joel Beinin. The December 2006 Misr workers' strike over unpaid bonuses initiated, and set the tone, for the unprecedented wave of strikes that have rocked the country since. The Egyptian daily Al-Masry Al-Yom reported 222 industrial actions in 2006, a figure that more than doubled to 580 in 2007. "Estimates of the number of workers involved range from 300,000 to 500,000," says Beinin. Since 2006 the strikes have affected the transport and textile sectors, among others, with blue collar workers including railway and subway employees, textile industry workers, ready made garment workers and garbage collectors all taking action. Their lead has been followed by professionals and white collar workers. University professors and physicians have threatened nationwide work stoppages. The largest collective action so far involved some 55,000 property tax collectors who staged a dramatic sit-in for higher wages in front of the headquarters of the Council of Ministers in December 2007. "The actions of Egyptian workers are motivated by dire poverty and untenable living conditions," says El-Attar. "The straw that eventually broke the camel's back is the soaring price of staple foods." The Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics reports an inflation rate of 16 per cent for March, up from 12 per cent in February. But as economist Ahmed El-Naggar points out, the aggregate figures mask the price hikes faced by the poor. The bulk of their income goes on basic foodstuffs which have recorded some of the highest price increases. El-Naggar dismisses the current minimum wage of LE300 for university graduates, LE275 for technical school graduates and LE250 for unskilled labour as "ridiculous". "An average worker's entire monthly salary would buy only six kilos of meat. In 1970, it would have bought 37 kilos," he explains. Nader Fergani, editor of the Global Human Development Report, agrees. "Between December 2007 and March 2008, the price of food stuffs rose by 100 per cent," says Fergani. In 2007 alone the price of tea rose by 50 per cent, flour by 84 per cent, noodles by 150 per cent and lentils by 100 per cent. The UN World Food Programme categorises Egypt as a low-income, food-deficit country with high levels of food insecurity and malnutrition. Twenty per cent of the population, almost 14.2 million people, live below the line set for extreme poverty, i.e. on less than $1 a day. In addition to these, says Fergani, "tens of millions of others live below the global poverty level set by the International Monetary Fund at $2 per day". "The minimum monthly income for an average family of five should be LE1,650, yet 75 per cent of Egyptian families make less than that." The monthly minimum wage demanded by the state- controlled General Federation of Egyptian Trade Unions (GFETU) is LE800, which falls short of IMF requirements and will ensure that the bulk of Egypt's workers continue to exist well below the internationally defined poverty line. It is against this backdrop that workers are waging their struggle. In March 2007, 14,000 Misr plant workers signed a petition to impeach their local union committee, denouncing the GFETU as an arm of the government. One measure of the workers' success is that they established their own local committee, which the GFETU now recognises as a negotiating partner. "We forced the GFETU to address us as the legitimate representative of the plant's workers," says El-Attar. "This is why, this May Day, we feel both free and empowered."
