CAIRO: Jobless and penniless, eight men held a demonstration in front of the Workers Union yesterday Jan. 9. The eight men, who have been jobless for three months, were sacked from the German-Egyptian company that produces pipe fittings and small jobbing castings, Infit. The men were accused of inciting fellow workers to strike. The eight men are the leaders of a campaign by the workers in Infit to force directors to improve their pay and working conditions. Although their colleagues did not participate in the demonstration for fear of harsh ramifications, many have gone on strike to protest the fate of their colleagues, slowing down the factory s production rate. Hussein Mohammad Hussein, one of the eight, told Daily News Egypt, We are striking on the basis that international standards stipulate that the minimum wage should be LE 1,200, that's $2 a day. We only earn half that amount working in a company that makes LE 40-50 million annually. President Hosni Mubarak himself promised to increase workers' wages in the private and public sectors. However, the company Infit refused. We are completely alone in this, Hussein continued. We went to the Workers Union and they promised to help us, but they have not stood by us. It s clear that there has been some bribery going on. Workers also accuse Dr Inas Abdel Aziz Musa, the director of the company, of refusing to comply with international criteria for wages and working conditions. Daily News Egypt tried to reach any spokesperson from company's management for comment but was told by a security guard who answered the telephone that the administrative staff was unavailable after 4 pm. They also accuse the Minister of Manpower and Immigration, Aisha Abdel Hadi, of not supporting them in their campaign. The workers are waiting for an impending session, the Fifth Board on the Dec. 12, which will mark the beginning of the procedures deciding whether they will be left jobless or allowed to return to work. However, the eight men swear they will not cease campaigning for better pay and working conditions. We have no first aid, emergency clinics or even fundamental safety procedures, explained Said Gamal to Daily News Egypt. We work under dangerous conditions, using equipment that has the potential to cause serious injuries. It is a factory which produced lead products, and so even the air is poisonous. One of our colleagues had to be taken to hospital and they found his lungs were completely destroyed. Gamal himself has an injury to his right hand marked by a large scar. I didn t receive any compensation whatsoever; despite the fact we pay insurance. They just made me return to work. One of our colleagues, named Yehya Zida was seriously injured by a metal cylinder. It ran him right through but by luck he survived. They made him go back to work, and since then he s been a ruined man.
