Many Egyptian governorates witnessed protests demanding better living conditions, better work conditions, and purging companies of corruption on Thursday. In Sadat City, Monufiya governorate, a workers' sit-in at Ezz Steel Company continued for third day. Demonstrators are demanding raises as their salaries have not exceeded LE1200 per month for the last 15 years. In South Sinai, 450 workers from the Egyptian Maintenance Company, which is affiliated with the Petroleum Ministry, started a hunger strike to demand permanent contracts for all temporary workers in the company. Mediterranean Textile Company workers in the Borg el-Arab city of Alexandria laid down their tools in protest of the company's management policies, including the non-dispersal of profits. Engineers and workers at the Dar al-Tahrir Printing Press organized a sit-in to demand late payments. As a result, Al-Gomhurriya and Al-Dostour newspapers were not printed. Some 49 journalists at Al-Massaia newspaper organized a sit-in at the Supreme Council for Journalism in downtown Cairo, to protest the newspaper's refusal to give them permanent contracts. More than 500 workers from Dib Egypt Textile Company blocked Cairo's Ring Road protesting their dismissal. In Ismailia, workers from the East Delta Electricity Production Company continued their sit-in demanding that the head of the holding company enforce a decision that had been made regarding the workers' jobs. Workers from the Irrigation Directorate blocked Nile Street in Minya to demand permanent work contracts. They also threatened to block the railroad. Railroad employees stopped working in protest of officials' refusal to raise the fare. In Damietta, demonstrators from a village in Farskor blocked the agricultural road leading to Mansoura, the capital of Al-Daqahlia governorate in protest of the government's inaction toward acts of thuggery. One criminal incident resulted in the murder of one person while another remains in critical condition. In Sharqiya, security forces are intensifying negotiations with villagers who have blocked a road for three days in protest of deteriorating security conditions and the kidnapping of two quarry workers. The villagers are also protesting the imposition of tributes on agricultural land. Translated from Al-Masry Al-Youm
