CAIRO - The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) Friday provided hundreds of military buses in Cairo for commuters suffering from a strike by transportation workers over the past seven days. SCAF Chairman Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi ordered that the amy buses would carry commuters from 6:00am to 6:00pm every day. The buses will be available to the public in major squares such as Ramses, Abbassiya, Rimmaya, Imbaba, Heliopolis, Moqqatam and Sharabbiya. Since last week, bus drivers and conductors of the Greater Cairo Transportation Authority have stopped working in protest of the Government's refusal to raise their pensions and provide better healthcare services for them and their families. In the absence of State-run buses, the metro and private buses were struggling to cope with the flood of commuters in Cairo, eyewitnesses said. "The metro and private buses were totally packed," a commuter said, who asked not to be named, adding that many people in this town of 18 million were stranded and had to walk to work and home. The striking buses are the backbone of public transport in Cairo. The strike was led by drivers from the six main bus garages of Gisser el-Seuz, Fath, Nasr, Ather el-Nabi, Qattamiya and el-Mazallat, all operated by the Cairo Transportation Authority (CTA). The striking drivers wanted to return to the Ministry of Transportation rather than being employed by the Cairo Municipality, which pays them low wages. The drivers also allegedly accused the Municipality of ignoring their continuous demands for upgrading the bus fleet, paying higher salaries, allowances and pensions, introducing better working conditions and health insurance that would cover their family members. Meanwhile, the army promised to press more public buses into service to meet the situation. The striking drivers wanted the Government to put them on an equal footing with their colleagues in private sector companies in terms of wages, gratuity and allowances.
