CAIRO- THE nation's lorry drivers say they will continue the strike which they began on December 10 and escalate their action if the Government fails to respond to their demands. On Thursday, the Ahmed Nazif Government promised to reduce taxes and registration fees on trucks and reconsider a clause in a 2008 Traffic Law that will ban the trailers from the nation's roads in 2011. However, Moustafa el-Nuweihi, a spokesman for the Lorry Owners Association in Cairo, says that the majority of drivers have agreed to continue the strike to send the Government a message that they will fight for their rights. The Government, el-Nuweihi adds, is firm about not renewing licences for lorries in 2012, if the owners do not adjust their trucks as demanded by the 2008 Traffic Law. The drivers are demanding the annulment of the clause under which they have been ordered to remove the trailers from their trucks, alleging that they were not consulted before the changes were announced at the end of 2008 by the Government. “We are opposed to the fact that the Government approved the clause without notifying us,” Mohamed Abdel-Moneim, a truck driver, says. Abdel-Moneim stresses that the Government should have told the truck drivers/owners in advance that it planned to get rid of the trailers and that a new agreement was being studied, to give them time to put their affairs in order. The drivers were set to announce the start of another open-ended strike and the holding of a meeting to discuss possible escalatory measures. No dates for the strike or the meeting have been set yet, Abdel-Moneim explains, adding, however, that thedrivers have vowed to take disciplinary measures against any of their colleagues who fail to obey orders to strike. Many of the truck drivers/owners support further strike action and demand that it will be expanded to include colleagues who are currently not on strike. "Their exclusion from the call to strike weakens our cause," Abdel- Moneim comments, adding that there are more than 900,000 trucks with trailers running on the nation's roads. “Strike action must include all truck drivers so that we have a united front. An organised strike will reap positive results,” he continues, explaining that some of his colleagues have called for a sit-in outside the Ministry of Finance. The truck drivers' strike, which has tentatively stopped, started a week ago in protest against the Government's high taxes and the unpopular clause of the 2008 Traffic Law, which bans trailers from using the nation's roads next year. The Nazif Government has stood firm against the drivers' demands, despite the strike, which has slowed transportation to and from the nation's markets and seaports. However, a Cairo-based group supporting former UN atomic watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei, who has turned into a political activist, have saluted the drivers' action. They say that the truck drivers' strike is a lesson for all Egyptians who want to change their life and resist 'the Government's arbitrary decisions'. "The strike by truck drivers, shows that if the people [Egyptians] have the will to change something, they can do it," the supporters say. In a related development, Alaa Eddin el-Washaas, a spokeswoman for the Truck Drivers' Union in the Delta governorate of Kafr el-Sheikh, says that the situation could become critical if the Government insists on its stance. El-Washaas believes that the number of striking lorry drivers could reach 1,500 and their trucks would not hit the road again until the Government meets their demand and rescinds the controversial clause. But the Government says that it will not back down. "The clause is essential and the Government is committed to it and will go ahead with it to reduce traffic accidents," a Government official, who asked not to be identified, said. However, many Cairo residents have said that the capital could see serious vegetable supply problems and a rise in the prices of farm produce. At a grocery store in the Cairo district of Hadaaiq el-Qubba, a housewife called Warda Hassan said she had to pay LE2 extra to buy a kilo of tomatoes. In the meantime, the police have warned that drivers will be breaking the law and could risk jail if they renew the strike. Last week, the aluminium and timber factories in the Upper Egyptian governorate of Qena faced a stalemate because of the strike, as it has severely disrupted the supply of raw materials at the peak of their busy season. A broad range of businesses from factories to sugarcane growers and construction companies have been badly hit by the strike, which began on Friday, says the chief executive officer of an Aswan-based sugar factory. "The greatest damage has been caused to the vital sugar industry, with thousands of tonnes of sugarcane being left in the storehouses without being shipped to the factories in Edfu and Kom Ombo," CEO Abdel-Aziz Khalifa explains. He says that the strike has badly hit his factory, whose products cannot be delivered to wholesale buyers in nearby governorates because of the truckers' strike. "This is a disaster," he adds. In Port Said and Alexandria, some truckers have decided to go on another strike and vowed to ignore warnings that, if they continue to defy the law, they will be prosecuted and their operating licences forfeited.
