LOW salaries, lack of health insurance, and deteriorating work conditions have prompted hundreds of workers from the information centres of the Local Development Ministry to continue to picket outside the Parliament yesterday for the seventh day in a row. The employees, who kept chanting slogans against the Government allegedly for neglecting their suffering, stood on the pavement and said they would go on a hunger strike if the Government did not solve their problems. “We take peanuts for salaries,” said Moustafa Abdel Hafez, one of the striking workers. “We suffered this for years, but the Government doesn't seem to have eyes to see or hearts to feel our problems,” he told The Gazette in an interview. Abdel Hafez and his colleagues, who staff the information centres of the Local Development Ministry around the nation ��" about 32,000 workers ��" do the magnificent task of making information about everything in Egypt available to the Government, the private sector, the media, and ordinary Egyptians. They spend their times gathering this information from its original sources. This takes them to almost every home, workshop, and official agency in Egypt. Despite this, their salaries range from 100 to 150 (from US$ 18 to US$ 27.5) Egyptian pounds. Some of them have lost their lives to make information available, according to some of the workers. Abdel Hafez earns 100 Egyptian pounds a month. His wife is also a coworker. This brings their total income to 200 Egyptian pounds (almost US$ 36.5). But this does nothing for them to feed their three children. “If one of my children falls ill, I find myself at an extreme loss,” he said. “Sometimes I don't find the money necessary for the medication of my children,” he added. The fury of Abdel Hafez and his colleagues adds to the heat in the vicinity of the Parliament, which has turned of late into a protest centre for angry Egyptians of all stripes. A few days ago, textile workers occupied the pavements around the Parliament in protest against their low wages and poor work conditions. Other Egyptians flock in their hundreds to the Parliament building to complain about everything from high prices to low salaries and the lack of political reform. Although the staff of the information centres have been suffering the same problems since 2002, few governmental officials seemed to be interested in solving their problems, they say. A number of legislators, however, promised to bring these problems to the Parliament today. This will be exactly when the striking workers will be joined by their family members outside the Parliament. They say they will continue to sit in there as long as their problems are not solved. “We're fed up with empty promises,” Abdel Hafez said. “The Government is responsible for giving us solutions,” he added.
