CAIRO - Today's Labour Day celebrations are still hanging in the balance as the Government has not yet responded to the Egyptian Trade Union Federation's (ETUF) request to hold its planned celebration. The Government has expressed its reservations about planned May Day celebrations by the country's largest labour body in Cairo, citing security reasons after the ousting of president Hosni Mubarak as well as arresting ETUF chairman Hussein Megawer over alleged graft charges, an official told The Gazette. Megawer, along with ex-Labour Minister Aisha Abdul Hadi, has also been accused of orchestrating an attack against the protesters on February 2 that left hundreds of young people dead or wounded in Al Tahrir Square in what is popularly known as the Battle of the Camel. They strongly denied any wrong doing. However, ETUF media officer Yehia el-Sawi said that the labour body will hold a low-profile celebration in Cairo today to honour veteran labour activists and commemorate the memory of workers who were killed during the 18-day uprising that forced Mubarak to step down on February 11. "Acting ETUF Secretary General Ismail Fahim will preside over the celebration that will be attended by family members of the workers, who were killed in anti-Mubarak protests in Cairo and Suez," el-Sawi said. He said that the ETUF was hoping that by today it will be having a clear picture of what will be happening in all the governorates. “The situation is a bit uncertain, the ETUF is hoping that the Government will give it the go-ahead to hold our commemorations after the end of the Mubarak regime and Megawer's arrest, which were welcomed by the union leaders,” el-Sawi said. Meanwhile, Kamal Abu Eitta, a labour activist, has accused Mubarak and Megawer of stifling the freedoms of workers by banning gatherings and marches in the past. Abu Eitta, also the chairman of an independent tax collectors' union, said that he had presented eleven demands to the Essam Sharaf Government for more workers' rights. "These demands include approving an annual 10% wage increase, giving permanent jobs to part-time workers, halting all privatisation programmes, re-opening all closed factories, rescinding Law No.12/2003 that allows job owners to lay off workers, approving social benefits aimed at the unemployed, creating jobs for the nation's youth, rescinding the notorious insurance law that deducts a considerable sum from the workers' wages, restoring the money that the Mubarak regime had illegally taken from workers' funds, widening the scope of health insurance to include the nation's workers, and purging all trade unions from the remnants of the old regime," he said. Abu Eitta added that the Government should approve these demands if it were keen on preserving more workers' rights. In what appeared to be an effort to dampen the unions' appetite for protests, the Government announced this week it would conduct a study for increasing public sector salaries and raising the minimum wage from as early as July 1. Even before the January 25 revolution began, Labour Day has been an opportunity for Egyptian workers to vent frustration at wide income disparities and poor social safety nets. Meanwhile, some labour activists say they have been calling on workers to hold May Day celebration, which starts at 4:00 pm today in Cairo's iconic Al Tahrir Square. "We have asked one million Egyptian workers to come to Tahrir today to take part in the celebration," Kamal Abbass, a member of the Cairo-based independent labour union, said.
