Labor protests erupted in five separate locations in Cairo on Monday and Tuesday, in which demonstrators called for improved wages and better working conditions. About 4000 workers from the Egyptian Coal Company said they intended to stage protests on Tuesday in Cairo's Helwan district to demand better financial conditions and a share of the company's substantial sales profits. They also demanded that an investigation be launched into financial and administrative irregularities on the part of the management, as was reported by the Egypt's Central Auditing Agency. Meanwhile, more than 250 workers from the National Cement Company, a subsidiary of the Italian Cement Group, also staged protests to demand improved working conditions. They said they had been working for the company for 15 years and still received as little as LE459 per month. Workers at Omar Effendi Department Stores, for their part, said they would file a lawsuit against Gamil al-Qanbit--the Saudi investor who currently holds an 85-percent stake in the company--for failing to pay their salaries on time. Trade union representative Gobaily Mohamed said he had met with Minister of Manpower Aisha Abdel Hady to discuss workers' demands. And 200 workers from Lafarge Cement asked to be reinstated after having been sacked by the management, while workers of the Sohag Onion Production Factory called on newly-appointed Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq to cancel the planned sale of the factory to private investors and return it to the custodianship of the state. Translated from the Arabic Edition.
