CAIRO: Shipping at Egypt's Suez Canal was unaffected by a strike by canal employees on Saturday, a Suez Canal Authority (SCA) official said. Dozens of employees at the Suez Canal gathered in front of one of the canal's administrative buildings in the northeastern city of Ismailia on Saturday to demonstrate against the head of the canal authority. The demonstrators waved banners and expressed various grievances such as low pay and delays in promotions, which they said the SCA Chairman Ahmed Fadel had not yet addressed. Suez Canal employees have been among the civil servants and workers who have gone on strike at businesses and factories across Egypt since the toppling of Hosni Mubarak on Feb 11., empowered by a newly found outlet for public expression. The Suez Canal is an important source of foreign currency for Egypt, along with tourism, oil and gas exports and remittances from Egyptians living abroad.
