CAIRO – Upon orders from Prime Minister Essam Sharaf, Minister of Transport Atef Abdel Hamid held a meeting with representatives of Cairo Metro protesters, who have been staging a sit-in, inside a station for the past two days ago. Despite failing to end the sit-in, the meeting discussed demands by the protesters as Minister Abdel Hamid decided to form a ministerial committee to review the means through which such demands could be met. "The committee to review the workers' demands will be formed tomorrow. However, I call on workers to stick to dialogue to achieve their demands and stop their sit-in," Abdel Hamid was quoted by the official Middle East News Agency (MENA) as saying. He added that the Cairo Metro was a 100 per cent owned by the State and "there are no plans to privatise it". Over 500 Metro employees �" including conductors, operators and ticket collectors �" are staging a sit-in at the Anwar el-Sadat Station in Al Tahrir Square, calling for the sacking of head of their company Mohamed el-Shemi. "We have promised the minister that the service will not be disrupted due to the sit-in. We are organising shifts among the staff," one protester said. The protesters allege the sit-in is held because el-Shemi wants to privatise the subway train company, which would put all employees on insecure ground and also force hierarchical changes. "The sit-in will last until el-Shemi is dismissed," the protesters insisted
