12 - 18 July 2001
Issue No.542
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 12 - 18 July 2001 Issue No.542 |
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Ramsis Square in 1975 (photo: Hussein El-Sha'er
Manning the engine
Anniversary celebrations usually spotlight erstwhile kings and current ministers. Al-Ahram Weekly takes time to remember the workers who gave the railway life
"I am a worker for the Egyptian Railway Authority -- for twenty years now," says Mohamed Abdel-Fatah, a locomotive driver, with evident pride. He is one of an approximate 100,000 workers manning the railway, some 5,500 of whom are drivers. Abdel-Fatah's pride reflects an understanding of the role he plays in putting the whole system in motion and it is a pride that defies difficult work conditions like a harsh working environment and low pay -- the conditions most of us only hear about when an accident has happened and a culprit must be found.
Photo-galleryBut who exactly are we talking about? There are the traincar workers: the driver, his assistant (el-atashgui), the conductor and the electrician. Then there are the station workers: the station master and his assistant, the platform supervisor, more electricians, mechanics and those who clean the tracks (usually young workers and women). Add to those the sleeper workers (el- dareesa) and those who man the warehouses, anabir, where heavy-duty mechanical work is done. It is from this specialised labour that the modern Egyptian working class was born.
When the railway was established, it was one of the few workplaces that offered large numbers of workers permanent employment. From the very beginning, the terms were harsh: in 1900 the average working day ranged between 10 and 15 hours and seven-day work weeks were the norm. Few workers (usually foreigners) enjoyed benefits such as medical care or severance pay. According to Beinin and Lockman's Workers on the Nile, in the year 1907, the Railway Authority had three categories for employees, "the highest of which consisted of permanent, pensionable, disproportionately European employees who enjoyed extensive benefits and numbered 2,335... The second category consisted of 4,905 non- pensionable but permanent employees paid monthly." But the great bulk of the railway work force "was made up of nearly 15,000 'temporary' workers, many of whom had worked for the [Egyptian Railway Authority] for years, but nevertheless were paid on a daily basis, could be fired without cause or compensation, and had no right to paid days off or medical care."
It was conditions such as these that prompted collective labour action as early as 1906. In 1908, after management issued orders for a workday of 12 hours at busy stations and up to 21 hours (alternating with equal time off) at secondary stations, agitation once again erupted in the railway work force. In the newspaper Al- Mu'ayyad of 12 August 1908 the anonymous leaders of the railway workers published the following: "Until when will they beat us with sticks? Right, backed by demands, will not be denied." The authority pre-empted strike action by promising to redress the situation and announced that Egyptians could now be appointed as station masters and inspectors.
In 1910 the focus of labour activism shifted to the anabir in Cairo with a short but violent strike against harsh management. Eventually, once again, concessions were made to alleviate worker tension. In 1919, the anabir -- particularly in Bulaq (in Cairo, considered the largest single concentration of industrial workers at the time) and Al-Qabari in Alexandria -- emerged as bastions of support for the nationalist movement, providing the Wafd with a zealous and loyal base of support within the labour movement.
Time would pass and a populist regime under Gamal Abdel-Nasser would co-opt the labour movement -- a social contract that saw workers give up political and trade union freedoms in exchange for the incorporation the labour movement into a state body responsive to workers' basic needs. For better or worse, it was a trade-off; today these benefits are slowly eroding. And although working class activism in Egypt is not generally vibrant, railway workers have been known to take a stand -- the most famous being the wildcat strike of 1986.
Still, the harsh effects of austerity measures and "rationalisation" are taking their toll. Starting in 1999, many workers complained they were being thrown out of company housing. Health benefits have become almost non-existent, with workers complaining that the Railway Authority hospitals lack doctors and facilities. "We are given LE60 a year in health benefits," complains an anabir worker who preferred to remain anonymous. "Now, what use is that if some medicines cost up to LE40 and more?" The healthcare situation is exacerbated by the fact that the nature of railway work can itself be the source of serious health problems. "Many of us suffer high blood pressure and diabetes. Drivers are also supposed to have almost perfect hearing, but they work in very noisy conditions. Then, when a driver starts to lose his hearing as a result of his working conditions, he is transferred to another job -- usually one that pays much less."
These are just examples -- the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. What is clear is that while the workers of the Railway Authority celebrate 150 years of hard work, they also look to the legacy of activism left by their ancestors -- their pride in that legacy equalling their pride in the work they do today.
Qabari: Egypt's first rail station, strategically situated close to the port and the Khedive's palace in Alexandria. It was popularly known as the Pasha's Station (photo: Randa Shaath)
the men who run the railway (source: Al-Ahram archives)
giving the danger signal
the 1891 Cairo Station (photos reproduced from Railway Museum originals)
vital connections: railway meets port in Alexandria (photo: Randa Shaath)
old fashioned shunting (photo: Hassan El-Touni)
the "Official Door" at the Cairo Station (photo: Sherif Sonbol)
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