CAIRO: Thousands of public transport workers ended their strike Thursday after two days of paralyzing the traffic flow in Cairo's streets. Workers' demands found their way to Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif and Minister of Manpower Aisha Abdel Hady, who agreed to most of the demands and promised to consider others. Workers ended the strike and buses started flowing again through the streets of the capital. Gebaly Mohamed, president of the General Union for Land Transport Workers, told Daily News Egypt, "Everything is back to normal. The Transport Authority is working now at its full capacity after the intervention of the Prime Minister and the Minister of Manpower as well as labor union committees. The government responded fully to all of their demands and even more. Khaled Aly, head of the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights, confirmed that the strike has ended. "The strike ended after a ministerial decision was issued to start fulfilling all workers' demands, he said. About 80 percent of the drivers, ticket collectors and mechanics staged a sit-in at more than 14 public transport garages for two days, refusing to operate more than 700 buses. The workers were protesting low wages and harassment by traffic police. They also demanded to be exempt from traffic fines except for major violations. Wael, a driver in Nasr City garage, said, "We ended our strike yesterday after the government fulfilled 60 percent of our demands and promised to consider the rest within 15 days. They agreed to lift traffic fines off our meager salaries and put them on the state budget instead. "We are now back on track. We don't want to harm citizens' interests. He added, however, that the transport workers "insist on withdrawing confidence from the three unions that represent us, even if we had to start an independent union. On the other hand, Mohamed said, "The [talk] of withdrawing confidence from labor unions is not true as I ordered to form a special committee to interact directly with drivers and know their problems. This will be a legitimate cross-channel in order to avoid future problems. During a meeting last Tuesday, Cairo Governor Abdel Azim Wazir praised the employees of the public transport sector, and announced a plan to replace the current public transport fleet with 400 natural gas-powered vehicles by the end of the year. This, he said, will lead to better service as well as higher revenues for drivers and collectors.
