Some 100 workers at Al-Nubaria for Agricultural Engineering and Mechanism have again demonstrated before the People's Assembly (Parliament) in protest against not receiving their salaries for 16 months after the company was closed. Such a demonstration was staged a day after the end of the parliamentary session. The demonstrators chanted slogans such as: "Oh, MPs where are you?" and "Our President Mubarak, solve our problem." They called on President Mubarak to intervene and carried banners reading: "Oh, our President, protect us from Al-Nubaria tyrants!" and "Al-Nubaria workers beg because they have not received their salaries for 16 months...Save us."
All the company's workers signed a report and sent it to the Parliament, calling on MPs to intervene so that the company could be reopened. They also called for mandating someone to run the company instead of businessman Ahmed Dia Eddin, who has some 75% of the company's shares. They accused Aisha Abdel Hadi, Minister of Manpower, of breaking her promises and ignoring their demands during last Tuesday's strike before the headquarters of the Ministry of Manpower. Abdel Hadi refused to meet them, as they put it. Salem Taha, one of the protestors, said the National Company for Construction and Development (NCCD) could solve the problem if it bought the Workers Federation's shares in the company, some 13%. The Egyptian Trade Union Federation supports all workers who have not received their salaries since March 2008, when the public prosecutor issued a decision to re-appoint Diaa Eddin as the company's manager.
Yahya Adel, a worker, has called on President Mubarak to intervene, adding that his two daughters left their secondary school, even though they were excellent students, after he failed to support them financially. In addition, he sold his furniture; one piece after another. He has nothing left to sell. Therefore, the disbursement of workers' salaries has become a life-or-death issue.
