“Adel Zakaria” – A member of the journalists’ network of Arab trade unions
Egypt – the Egyptian trade union movement witnessed fierce battles, over the past few months, due to the new trade union law and its executive regulations, which hampered the settling of the trade unions’ situation. In addition, it is due to the threats of imprisonment and detention of the trade union leaders, and the arrest of some of them in an attempt to stop them from looking for independence, as well as, the attempts to sow discord among the movement and pressure some of its representatives to join the governmental unions, using the carrot and stick approach…
The last few months have witnessed the stage of reconciliation of the trade unions’ conditions, according to the provisions of the new law, and then the labor elections, which have not been held for more than 12 years… Some people believed that it was the end of the so-called independent trade union movement and that the governmental trade unions returned to their power, control and status of the pre-revolution period (before January 25 ,2011), where trade unions did nothing for workers like they did not even exist… While some others believe that it is a new clear and concrete beginning for the independent trade union movement, as these battles served in its favor… Based on these tensions, the independent trade union movement succeeded in revealing some of the weaknesses of the repressive measures of the trade union law…
The future of the independent trade union movement
“Kamal Abbas”, the general coordinator of the Centre for Trade Union and Workers' Services (CTUWS), says that the future will be for the independent trade union movement. In fact, despite our objection to many of the articles included in the trade union law, it has achieved an important gain for the Egyptian trade union movement, which is the recognition of people belonging to the basic unions and general unions, who do not belong necessarily to the union committees or governmental unions. This is what the Egyptian trade union movement has been seeking for many years, for instance, in 2007, following the famous strike of 2006, more than 13 000 workers from the Misr Helwan company collected the no confidence signatures from the trade union committee that sided with the company’s administration, which was against the workers’, and handed over those signatures to the general union, which refused to withdraw confidence… Currently, workers can withdraw confidence according to the provisions of the law and its executive regulations, or resign from the union and form a new one that represents them without joining any other labor union… This means that the attempts to restore the trade union’s status before January 25, 2011 and to keep the government unions in the same way are despair and fail attempts…
The same reasoning is confirmed by “Saad Chaabane”, the president of the Egyptian Democratic Labor Federation (independent), adding that he expects the collapse of the government unions with the leaving of their sub unions, which were obliged to join them using the carrot and stick approach, in the
next few months. In fact, eleven union committees affiliated with the electricity sector have already announced their withdrawal from the General Federation of Utilities affiliated with the governmental union and announced the beginning of the formation of an independent general union for the electricity sector workers, especially after that the General Union of Utilities did not provide workers with the exceptional allowance approved by “Al-Sissi”…This means ( according to “Chaabane”) that this movement will be the main union in any future labor protest…Any minor fault by the union will force the workers to withdraw their confidence according to the provisions of the law, or to withdraw and announce their establishment of a real union that represents them in a concrete representation…
“Atef Mahmoud”, the head of the regional union of the Upper Egypt's Union (independent ) adds that the countless excesses in the labor elections have already prompted many trade unionists ,who have been subjected to arbitrary measures to declare the non-impartiality of the electoral process, especially in large companies , such as the Aluminum industry in “Naga Hammadi” city in “Qena” governorate, where the group announced their intention to withdraw from the government union and start the procedures for the establishment of an independent union… This was also the case for the sugar companies, especially for “Armant” company in “Qena”, as the workers began to apply for the official withdrawal from the governmental union, which was also the same for the drinking water and sanitation company in “Qena” as well, as a result of the disregard the board of the union to ask for some financial dues of the company's workers…
Legal provisions draw the road map to the independence of trade unions
“Rahma Refaat”, the workers’ legal adviser, denotes to us some articles of the law that give hope to the continuation of the independent trade union movement. She affirmed that there are many articles that confirm the acquisition of the legal personality of the union committee or general union, whether in the law or executive regulations. For instance, Article (3) of the law stipulates that " The trade union organizations established and formed by law shall retain their legal personality, retain all their property, and continue to exercise their jurisdiction in order to achieve their objectives, in accordance with the provisions of the annexed law and the regulations of their statutes… The legal personality of other trade union organizations shall be established from the date of their conciliation or establishment, in accordance with the provisions of the accompanying law. "…
Moreover, Article (1) stipulates that "Any trade union organization, which have already acquired the legal personality and was established, in accordance with the law shall retain that personality as provided in article 2 or shall be established and acquire by a legal personality, in accordance with the provisions of this law …
The same provision in Article 4 stipulates that: "Workers, without discrimination, shall have the right to form trade union organizations, as well as, the freedom to join or withdraw from them, in accordance with the rules and procedures of this law, its executive regulations and the statutes of these organizations."…
Article 3 of the Executive Regulations states that: "Workers, without discrimination shall have the right to form trade union organizations, as well as, the freedom to join or withdraw from them, in accordance with the rules and procedures of these Regulations and the statutes of these organizations. In addition,
the withdrawal of a worker from any trade union organization shall not violate any of his rights, or his participation in that organization, in accordance with the regulations of its basic rules” …. Article 4: Each trade union organization shall have its own legal independent personality from the other organizations and the small trade union organizations shall have the right to join or withdraw from another bigger trade union organization or to exercise its activities without joining any other trade union organization. The rules of the basic law regulations of the concerned trade union organization shall determine the rules and procedures concerning the accession or the withdrawal from other trade union organizations.
Besides, Article (9) states that: "The legal personality of the trade union organizations shall be established from the date of filing the required documents with the competent administrative authority and it can practice freely its activities from that date. “…
On the allegations about the Egyptian government and the workers' unions’ intentions to change these articles, in the coming period, in order to have a total control of the worker, “Rahma Refaat” says that this is probably not true as these articles are the only good thing in the law. In fact, the Egyptian government managed to convince the ILO to remove Egypt from the black list where only the countries that do not respect the international conventions belong. However, in case of its non-adherence to the international laws, Egypt is subject to return again to be on the black list…
The early moves on the ground
As expected, 10 of the heads of the trade unions of the electricity sector announced their withdrawal from the General Union of Utilities affiliated with the governmental union, and called for the withdrawal of confidence from the General Union in protest against what the unionists described as the general union’s disregard to pay the public sector employees’ social allowance.
“Hussein Dakrouri”, a unionist in the Electric Workers Syndicate of Suez affirmed that they decided to withdraw confidence from the General Union of Utilities, because of its non-protection of thousands of electricity workers’ rights, to pay their exceptional premium approved by Law 96 of 2018, including all workers in the state without exception
“Dakrouri” pointed out that the withdrawal of confidence may require more time, which led the workers to rethink again and establish a new union, in accordance with Law 213 of 2017 on trade union organizations, which gave workers the right to form trade unions if the number reached 20 thousand and had 15 subsidiary unions, which is the case for the electricity workers, which number exceeds 150 thousand workers, and reaches 65 subsidiary unions…
The ten unions wrote a memorandum on what was agreed upon and sent it to the board of directors of the governmental union. They said in the memorandum: "According to the provisions of the trade union law and the protection of the right to organize law, issued by Law No. 213 of 2017 (the official journal No. 50 issued on 17 December 2017) and its executive regulations issued by Decree No. 35 of 2018 (the Egyptian Act No. 14 of March 14, 2018). In fact, Article 4 of the executive regulations stipulates that ": Each trade union organization shall have its own legal independent personality from the other organizations and the small trade union organizations shall have the right to join or withdraw from another bigger trade union organization or to exercise its activities without joining any other trade union organization…
Consequently, the signatories of this request agreed on withdrawing from (the General Union of Utilities), which does not represent them, or even express their collective will, or adapts their legitimate demands, as it does not also seek to initiate the necessary legal proceedings for workers of electricity and energy companies (in their different sectors: production, transportation, and distribution) to obtain their renumerations over three consecutive years: 2016, 2017 and 2018 … in addition to other demands and rights… In addition to its suspicious silence regarding the interventions and falsification of the results of the recent labor elections. As a result, the signatories announce their withdrawal from the General Union of Utilities, and strive to establish a general union for electricity and energy companies that would be a real representor of its workers…warning the concerned authorities to stop the deduction of the trade union fees starting from July 1, 2018. "…
work of the struggle over the benefits of the union, seven unions announced their alliance with each other, namely: spinning, weaving, oil, journalism, printing, food industries, mines, quarries, agriculture and shipping, coming up with an initial document that guarantees the right of the independence of the general trade unions.
It was reported that the main goal of the allied heads of the trade unions is to send a message to the president of the governmental union, “Jabali Al-Maraghi” and the secretary-general “Mohammad Wahballah”, in case of the non-implementation of their requests, whether to obtain the village of dreams or the cultural institution (two institutions owned by the trade union of high financial income), the law will be implemented through their sovereignty over their unions without relying on the governmental union either in the payment of the participation fees or as an independent institutional entity .
The continuation in the judicial proceedings
“Tariq Kaib”, the head of the General Union of Real Estate Tax Workers (independent), one of the most important public unions which process of conciliation has been hindered, despite the fact that it has met all the difficult conditions for the reconciliation. He says: “As a general union, we rejected all the pressures and inducements to join the governmental union. Moreover, through the judiciary and the Egyptian courts, we decided to carry on the struggle about our legitimacy”, stressing his confidence in obtaining a judicial ruling for legitimacy of the General Union, adding that he expected in a few months the return of the spirit of the independent trade unions’ movement, after overcoming all the hardships and difficulties it faced, during the past months in an attempt to eliminate them. He also pointed out that the unions that were able to reconcile their situation despite all the obstacles, they are active unions which struggled and suffered was the result of the labor protests, which confirms its adherence to independence, despite that it didn’t meet the necessary requirements for the formation a labor union, but “I expect that it will soon be able to meet these conditions and announce the beginning of a new union, stronger than the governmental union”.
He added that during the last ten years, since the launch of the first independent trade union in Egypt in 2008, the Association of Real Estate Tax Workers, the establishment of the independent trade unions was based on the ministerial decision issued by Dr. “Ahmed Hassan El-Borai” in 2011, and based on the international agreements, with the absence of a local that would allow their formation…
In the present situation, the new local law allows the establishment of trade unions. In Egypt there are 90 industrial zones, 65 000 establishments employing 70% of the labor force in Egypt, however, there are no trade unions. It is still a vast void area that needs an immediate trade union intervention in the coming days, in accordance with the law provisions that would allow the formation of such unions. “I think that the future of the movement will improve in these places, that are free of trade unions and belong to the private sector”.
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