Egypt raises fuel prices, imposes one-year freeze amid cost pressures    Egypt courts Indian green energy investment in talks with Ocior Energy    Egypt, India hold first strategic dialogue to deepen ties    Egypt: Guardian of Heritage, Waiting for the World's Conscience    Egypt, Qatar sign MoU to boost cooperation in healthcare, food safety    EGX ends week mostly higher on Oct. 16    Egyptian Amateur Open golf tournament relaunches after 15-year hiatus    Egypt, UK, Palestine explore financing options for Gaza reconstruction ahead of Cairo conference    Egypt will never relinquish historical Nile water rights, PM says    Egypt explores cooperation with Chinese firms to advance robotic surgery    Fragile Gaza ceasefire tested as humanitarian crisis deepens    CBE, China's National Financial Regulatory sign MoU to strengthen joint cooperation    AUC makes history as 1st global host of IMMAA 2025    Avrio Gold to launch new jewellery, bullion factory in early 2026    Al Ismaelia launches award-winning 'TamaraHaus' in Downtown Cairo revival    Al-Sisi, Burhan discuss efforts to end Sudan war, address Nile Dam dispute in Cairo talks    Egypt's Cabinet hails Sharm El-Sheikh peace summit as turning point for Middle East peace    Gaza's fragile ceasefire tested as aid, reconstruction struggle to gain ground    Egypt's human rights committee reviews national strategy, UNHRC membership bid    Al-Sisi, world leaders meet in Sharm El-Sheikh to coordinate Gaza ceasefire implementation    Egypt's Sisi warns against unilateral Nile actions, calls for global water cooperation    Egypt unearths one of largest New Kingdom Fortresses in North Sinai    Egypt unearths New Kingdom military fortress on Horus's Way in Sinai    Egypt Writes Calm Anew: How Cairo Engineered the Ceasefire in Gaza    Egypt's acting environment minister heads to Abu Dhabi for IUCN Global Nature Summit    Egyptian Open Amateur Golf Championship 2025 to see record participation    Cairo's Al-Fustat Hills Park nears completion as Middle East's largest green hub – PM    El-Sisi boosts teachers' pay, pushes for AI, digital learning overhaul in Egypt's schools    Syria releases preliminary results of first post-Assad parliament vote    Karnak's hidden origins: Study reveals Egypt's great temple rose from ancient Nile island    Egypt resolves dispute between top African sports bodies ahead of 2027 African Games    Egypt reviews Nile water inflows as minister warns of impact of encroachments on Rosetta Branch    Egypt aims to reclaim global golf standing with new major tournaments: Omar Hisham    Egypt to host men's, juniors' and ladies' open golf championships in October    Germany among EU's priciest labour markets – official data    Paris Olympic gold '24 medals hit record value    It's a bit frustrating to draw at home: Real Madrid keeper after Villarreal game    Russia says it's in sync with US, China, Pakistan on Taliban    Shoukry reviews with Guterres Egypt's efforts to achieve SDGs, promote human rights    Sudan says countries must cooperate on vaccines    Johnson & Johnson: Second shot boosts antibodies and protection against COVID-19    Egypt to tax bloggers, YouTubers    Egypt's FM asserts importance of stability in Libya, holding elections as scheduled    We mustn't lose touch: Muller after Bayern win in Bundesliga    Egypt records 36 new deaths from Covid-19, highest since mid June    Egypt sells $3 bln US-dollar dominated eurobonds    Gamal Hanafy's ceramic exhibition at Gezira Arts Centre is a must go    Italian Institute Director Davide Scalmani presents activities of the Cairo Institute for ITALIANA.IT platform    







Thank you for reporting!
This image will be automatically disabled when it gets reported by several people.



Workers, not voters, worry Egypt''s government
Published in Almasry Alyoum on 23 - 11 - 2010

Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak acknowledged this month that many of his compatriots have yet to benefit from faster economic growth as he launched his ruling party's campaign for Nov. 28 elections.
Mohamed Abdel Moneim, who takes home 350 Egyptian pounds (US$60) a month from a textile factory in the industrial city of Mahalla El Kubra, north of Cairo, says he has waited too long.
"I do not buy meat regularly. I can't, maybe once or twice every few months," the gaunt young man in ragged overalls said while taking a break outside the factory.
"The government is not doing enough, honestly speaking. There is so much more to be done to ... increase our wages."
With the parliamentary vote and a presidential poll in 2011 posing little threat to the National Democratic Party's (NDP) grip on power, analysts say the biggest flashpoint lies in the industrial heartlands of the Arab world's most populous country.
Moneim's factory, operated by state giant Misr Spinning and Weaving Co., turned into a battle zone two years ago, pitting workers against security forces in the culmination of a year of protests against low wages, surging prices and privatizations as the government pushed to liberalize swathes of the economy.
Two people died, hundreds were arrested and plainclothes security men took control of the textile mill to force strikers back to work. The workers wrung concessions from the state on pay and subsidized food, but say most remain unfulfilled.
Political protests can be quickly smothered under a state of emergency in place since Mubarak came to power in 1981, making factory floors likelier arenas for challenges to public order.
Factory workers have led most violent demonstrations in recent years.
A strike in December 2006 by thousands of spinning factory employees led to concessions on pay and bonuses, encouraging a wave of strikes and other protests across Egypt since.
Relatively new labor associations, operating outside the official trade federations widely seen as allied to the NDP, have begun to win victories for their members.
Their struggle has unfolded mostly outside the traditional political system. Cairo University analyst Hassan Nafaa said most factory workers were likely to boycott the election.
"The Egyptian workers' movement is a force with immense potential social and political power," said Anne Alexander, a research fellow at Cambridge University.
"Although a large proportion of the demands raised during these strikes have been economic ... some groups of workers have started to make political claims, including calling for a rise in the national minimum wage, and demanding the right to organize freely," she said.
Last month, a court ruled that the government must set a minimum wage that takes soaring prices into account. In response a government body proposed raising minimum monthly pay to 400 pounds from 35 pounds, a level set way back in 1984.
Many workers are skeptical, saying the government has still not honored pay increases promised after the 2008 protests.
Paradoxically, the labor discontent has coincided with years of healthy-looking economic growth in Egypt, where a slice of the population is getting richer fast -- witness the crowds thronging Cairo's smart new shopping malls.
Gross domestic product growth held at 5 percent after the global financial crisis struck and the NDP has pledged average growth of 7 percent in the next five years, which it says will create enough jobs to cut the 9.5 percent unemployment rate.
The goal has gained new urgency as prices of staples like meat and tomatoes doubled or even tripled within a few months. The official annual food inflation rate stands at 22 percent.
"Workers will not feel any progress until the government raises their pay or controls prices," said Khaled Ali, head of the Egyptian Centre for Economic and Social Rights, who defends workers in lawsuits against their employers.
"The only people affected by the high growth rate are the rich people and the businessmen, but the poor people and workers are not feeling it and will never feel the high growth rates."
In the Nile Delta town of Tanta, dozens of workers from the state-owned Petroleum Trading Service Company downed tools last month in a strike lasting more than two weeks to demand their pay be raised to match the salaries of new recruits.
"Minister Sameh Fahmy, where are you?" they shouted in an appeal to Egypt's oil minister, the NDP parliamentary candidate for Cairo's upmarket Heliopolis and Nasr City districts.
"We have worked six to nine years and get 214 pounds a month," said Ayman Aboul Soud, one of the workers.
They say their strike has spread to most of the 1,200 workers at the factory, although it is still functioning. "The workers will continue to protest, and the protests will get worse than those of 2008 as long as the government doesn't fix the problems of low wages and high prices," said Ali.


Clic here to read the story from its source.