Disaffected property tax workers are persisting in their round-the-clock sit-in in downtown Cairo, reports Serene Assir Thousands of property tax workers from all over the country have converged in Cairo to stage a round-the-clock sit-in in a protest that is now entering its second week. "We chose this location right in front of the Cabinet of Ministers building in downtown Cairo for our sit-in because this way the government won't be able to ignore us," said protester and union leader Sayed Badawi, himself a property tax worker. "We aren't leaving until our demand of equal pay with the rest of the tax workers in the country is met." Property tax workers have been excluded from the Ministry of Finance's payroll and administered at governorate level since 1974, following a decision by the then minister of finance Abdel-Aziz Hegazi. Hegazi split property tax collection from the rest of the state's taxation administration after workers allegedly discovered that his mother had not been paying tax on her property. Since then, property tax workers have been paid up to 10 times less than fellow tax workers in other sectors, with many making as little as LE200 a month. With their financial woes compounded by the recent increase in the cost of living, property tax workers launched a campaign of strikes and protests starting in September this year. Over the course of the nearly four-month-long strike, all of Egypt's 55,000 property tax workers have joined the action, causing a near-standstill in the sector. Since September, property tax collection has shrunk by up to 90 per cent, according to the independent newspaper Al-Dostour 's labour correspondent Mustafa Bassiouni. Starting on 3 December, property tax workers have been holding a peaceful sit-in against a backdrop of government buildings in Cairo, chanting slogans demanding the government's help to improve their lot. For many of the protesters there is now no turning back. "Do you think I would leave my family if our situation wasn't truly bitter?" protester Hala El-Qadi asked Al-Ahram Weekly. "We barely make enough to feed our children, let alone provide them with all that they need to grow up happily. I will not leave the sit-in until our demand for equal pay is met. It is our right." Meanwhile, other workers have brought their children along with them, and these have made their homes in the street, albeit surrounded by a ring of police from the Central Security Forces. Thus far the security forces have not intervened, though according to protest leader and unionist Kamal Abu Ayta, local residents have been warned not to cooperate with protesters. "But that won't make us go away," Abu Ayta told the Weekly. It has been the property tax workers' inventiveness in their choice of location and their steadfastness in their pursuit of their aims that has inspired the attention of analysts. The sit-in constitutes the first action of its kind in recent memory, particularly in that it involves public-sector workers. "We are not carrying political slogans," said protester and National Democratic Party member Mustafa El-Tannikhi from Beheira governorate. "However we also understand that our action may well inspire thousands of other government workers to do the same." Over recent months, Egypt has witnessed a dramatic multiplication in industrial action across sectors. However, following the much less visible, but no less successful, action taken by Al-Azhar schoolteachers in their demand to be given financial parity with other public schoolteachers in June this year, the current sit-in is the first major action engaged in by public-sector workers. Six million Egyptians work in the public sector, making the state the country's largest employer. At the heart of the current crisis, some of the protesters say, is disaffection with the overall impoverishment that Egypt has been witnessing and the disintegration of the middle class. "When I decided to work in the public sector, it was because I wanted to have a stable job which could help me give my children a better standard of living," El-Qadi said. "But it turns out that if I'd got a job in a factory doing manual labour, I would have been better off now. At least they get benefits -- our benefits are a miserable LE2.5 a month." Negotiations have been taking place between the authorities and the protesters since September this year, but these have yet to reach agreement that salaries should be raised to meet those of the majority of tax workers. Earlier this week a group of protesters including Abu Ayta was involved in the latest round of negotiations with Minister of Finance Youssef Boutros Ghali, during which they were promised parity over a three-phase implementation process. "We took a vote on it, and we decided a promise is not sufficient," Badawi told the Weekly. "We have been sleeping in the street too long for us to walk away with a promise. Either a ministerial decree is issued, or we don't budge."
