Vol. 78/No. 8      March 3, 2014

Like many workers in Egypt, pay is divided between regular wages and a system of bonus payments. The latter is often deferred and sometimes withheld altogether.

A decision by the government to disburse the overdue bonus payments after the second day of the strike was rejected by the workers in Mahalla because it did not address their demand for a raise in the minimum wage.

“About a month ago we formed the Free Union of Textile Workers in Mahalla to help in this fight. Our new union is actively participating in these mobilizations,” said Kamal Fayoumy, a leader of the textile workers in Mahalla, in a phone interview Feb. 14.

“We are also demanding the removal of the company’s director, Fouad Abdel-Alim, the establishment of an administrative board to run the company, investment of funds for the purchase of cotton, and payment of the minimum wage to the Mahalla workers, at other textile mills and to other workers as well,” he said.

Mahalla textile workers are demanding that a new monthly minimum wage of 1,200 Egyptian pounds ($170) promised by the government to go into effect early this year for certain public workers be implemented immediately and applied to all workers employed by the government and the enterprises it runs. The government owns many factories, like those in the textile industry.

Since the workers at Mahalla began their strike, workers at Zefteh Textile, Tanta Spinning and several other plants have joined the walkout.

For years, Mahalla textile workers have been in the forefront of the fight for a higher minimum wage. They first raised the demand in mass protests against President Hosni Mubarak’s regime in 2008. Demonstrations later swept throughout the country in 2011 that forced the ouster of the hated dictator.

The Egyptian rulers are turning the screws on the working class in face of an acute economic crisis. According to workers in Mahalla the Militant interviewed while on a reporting trip to Egypt last month, the mill is operating at very low capacity and layoffs have been frequent.

“The demand for funds to purchase cotton is also central for us,” said Fayoumy in the recent interview. “Right now production in the plant is down to 40 percent of capacity due to lack of cotton. We want production back up at 100 percent and the companies should buy the cotton needed.

“We do not want a protracted strike. We want to go back to work and all the machines to run, but it is necessary for the demands of the workers to be met.”

Georges Mehrabian contributed to this article.
 
 
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