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A group of striking Esco textile workers at the Qalyoub mill. The workers are protesting the mill's sale to the private sector "The press is coming at last. Where have you been? Why do you keep silent about our struggle?" asked an indignant group of striking textile workers as we entered the Esco company's Qalyoub branch. Located 15km north of Cairo's great industrial textile centre Shubra Al- Khaima, the mill is built on a sprawling nine-feddan site in Qalyoub, a sleepy rural town.
The 400 workers at the mill have been on strike since 13 February, protesting the government's sale of the mill to industrialist Hashem El- Daghri. They have staged a sit-in and taken over the premises. Their demands are spelled out on placards scattered over the plant's grounds. "The right to work is a human right," reads one placard near the mill's entrance. "The sacking of the Qalyoub textile workers is a prime example of this businessmen's government," reads another sign, placed on the walkway leading to the general manager's office. "Yo! Corporate government, we've had it with your imperialist policies," proclaims yet another. "We went on strike alone, without getting the support or the approval of the General Federation of Trade Unions. They never support labour action because they take their orders from the authorities," explained Mohamed Awad Mahran, an Esco worker who has been with the company for 23 years. "Our strike is against privatisation and the government's market policies. We have two straightforward demands and we'll end the strike when either of these demands are met," added Mahran. "Our first demand is to remain in the public sector. I estimate that about half of our work force has invested at least 20 years in the job and we are not willing to jeopardise our job security and our accumulated benefits in the private sector. If this demand is not met we will accept an adequate early retirement settlement," stressed Mahran. The workers are, in effect, asking the authorities to make good on pledges already made. An Esco worker delegation met with attorney Adli Hussein, the governor of Qalyoubiya, on 3 October, 2004 requesting to remain in the public sector. At the time Hussein promised to take up their case with the Minister of Investment, Mahmoud Mohieddin, who reportedly agreed to their demands and signed a letter to that effect. The letter then conveniently disappeared. "The governor seemed sympathetic to our cause when we approached him. The disappearance of the letter, though, is inexplicable unless, of course, we are dealing with a regular Mafia here," says 50-year-old Farag Shaarawi who has worked for 35 years at the mill. "Do you think we're joking?" asks Abdel- Hamid Ibrahim. "This is a Mafia. I was assaulted in my own house, dragged out and shoved into a car by a group of men posing as state security officers," he recounts. "They threatened me, saying that I should pressure my comrades to end the strike. Then they drove around for about half an hour and pushed me out of the car when we reached Gisr Al-Suez street." The following day Ibrahim went to the local state security office to file a complaint. The officers in charge denied being involved in the incident -- pointing the finger at El-Daghri instead. "It was clearly an attempt to intimidate us into submission," says Ibrahim. "The government had no right to sell the mill to industrialist Hashem El-Daghri behind our backs and without our knowledge," says Mahran. "According to the government's new unified labour law, which is really anti-labour, we should have been informed of the sale because we are partial shareholders of Esco. We own 10 per cent of the plant's shares." The controversial new law, which came into effect in July last year, sets a worrying precedent. Under the law employers can dismiss workers arbitrarily and are not required to provide justification or due cause. Wary, perhaps, of the Esco textile workers' reputation for militancy, the government privatised the plant by the backdoor. Claiming huge losses in the textile sector the government announced in September 2003 that they would lease the Qalyoub mill to industrialist Hashem El-Daghri for a three-year period: from 9 March 2004 to 9 March 2006. Then, on 9 September last year, the workers were unexpectedly hit with the news that El- Daghri had bought the mill for LE4 million. "The deal was a scam and the alleged sales figure proves it," says Ezzeddin Maged. "How can the public sector sell a mill worth an estimated LE60 million for LE4 million? Prior to the sale the management had spent LE7 million upgrading equipment. We managed to get all the details of the deal. In the spinning department alone they bought seven computers and other equipment for LE1.5 million. And they expect us to believe they sold the entire mill for peanuts?" As soon as El-Daghri took over things went from bad to worse. "This man tried to wipe out all our rights. He really showed us the ugly face of privatisation," comments Farag Shaarawi. El-Daghri started out by refusing to pay the workers' benefits and bonuses, telling them to get their money from Esco instead. Concerned about their livelihoods the workers insisted on remaining on Esco's payroll. "It's not that the public sector is so great. Look at my pay slip, after 35 years I clear LE271 after deductions," says Shaarawi. "This puts me below poverty level, but I should at least be able to claim my benefits when I need them. And what will happen to my family if El-Daghri decides to fire me? How will we survive?" While Shaarawi and his family can barely subsist on his monthly income of LE271, others are still poorer. "The average take-home salary ranges between LE140 to LE200. This is what we are fighting to keep right now. Our bare survival," adds Shaarawi. "It's a struggle that makes the Esco workers strong," says Adel Zakariya of the Helwan- based Centre for Trade Union Workers' Services (CTUWS). "They are fighting for their jobs and their benefits, though the latter may be seriously compromised. Esco's former management has failed to make payments for the workers' social security benefits since 1992, although social security was deducted and continues to be deducted from the workers' salaries. It remains to be seen whether the company will ultimately be able to meet its obligations, or if the workers' hard-earned money has just gone down the drain." "At any rate, this strike is really historic. We haven't witnessed such militant labour action for a long time," says Zakariya. "The last comparable strike in Egypt was in August 1989 when the Helwan Iron and Steel workers demanded higher wages and a meal." Meanwhile the workers are bracing themselves to continue the struggle. "They thought they could sell us with the mill as part of a neat package deal," says Shaarawi. "But we are not merchandise to be sold on the market."
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