CAIRO: Demonstrations and sit-ins continue across Egypt three months after the beginning of the January 25 Revolution. Tuesday saw sit-ins in Suez and Port Said, a demonstration in Menofiya governorate, and a demonstration over bread in Asyut. In Qusiya, Asyut, hundreds demonstrated before subsidized bread outlets because the supply directorate allocated only 13,000 loaves of bread to be distributed in the town rather than 28,000. “Supply Directorate officials refused to comply with the governor's decision about subsidized flour, which is supposedly sent automatically to bakeries and then to bread outlets. The officials gave most of the flour to their relatives and friends regardless of peoples' demands,” said a member of Qusiya's popular committee. He added that the popular committee has decided to distribute the bread from seven outlets and to give 10 loaves for each person in the town, which has around 3,000 people. Workers of the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) staged an open sit-in Tuesday before the SCA guidance office in Ismailia. The workers have called for higher salaries and healthcare for pensioners and their demands have not been met by the authority. “The demonstrators began their strike after finishing their work in order to not be contrary to their navigation work,” said syndicate member Abd el-Aziz abd al-Gawad said. “The demonstrators gave the authority a four-day time limit to achieve their demands at the beginning of this week, but nothing had happened as of the moment the strike began,” he added. Abd al-Gawad also said workers of the authority in Port Said governorate began a strike as well in response to a threat of firing three workers if they organized a sit-in. In Menofiya governorate, 250 workers of MINTOTEX co. demonstrated before the government's office in the city because the company did not give them their salaries and suppresses them. The workers accused Osama Abu el-Nasr, son of a member of the formerly ruling National Democratic Party, of misusing his relations with prominent political figures against the workers to deprive them of their financial rights. The workers say their salaries were unexpectedly reduced, although they already receive low salaries which do not meet their basic needs. -- Reporting by Gamal Gerahy in Ismailia, Dhuha Saleh in Asyut, and Mahmoud Nabawi in Menofiya.
