Egypt: (18) Thousands Workers in Spinning factory Declare a Strike

Egypt -18 thousand workers at at the state-owned Misr Spinning and Weaving in Mahalla declared a general strike in all areas of the company, to protest against the non-payment of the social allowance which was decided in accordance to Article 3 of Law No. 16 of 2017 for those who are not included in the Civil Service Law. The workers said the strike began partially and then decided to go on general strike.The workers went out of the factories towards  the headquarters and  threatened to go out to the street if the government continued to ignore their demands. Stressing the rejection of the statements of the Minister of Manpower, a number of MPs and officials of the Holding Company.  The Ministry of Manpower in Gharbia failed to convince the workers to stop the strike, which started last Sunday, August 6, as workers protested against the backdrop of their demands for the10% cost of living allowance  and the 10% social allowance  and increase the food  allowance to 500 pounds instead of 231 pounds, From the Commissioner-General, and included the incentive of the 220 to the monthly incentives, and the removal of the Vice President of the Holding Company .The workers also rejected the proposal of the President of the Holding Company Dr. Ahmed Mustafa, to end the strike on the promise to resolve the crisis, the same promise made by a number of MPs during the last period. workers stressed that they will continue the strike until the implementation of their demands.The army forces surrounded the company on the second day of the strike,  to negotiate with the companys management to reach solutions, but negotiations failed.The siege lasted for  2 days then they withdrew  after receiving criticism by workers, and activists on social networking sites

The labour leader Jihad Tamman said that there is no serious intention to resolve the crisis by the ministry because workers refused to receive salaries for two days to protest against the non-payment of the premium on the 19th of last month, and then they went on  strike, and now the strike entered its 10th days without significant interference from the ministry as they did not even discuss the crisis.

Earlier, Minister of Labour Mohamed Saffan said that the Minister of Business Sector is currently studying with the heads of holding companies the latest developments to issue decisions on all companies belonging to the business sector, including Mahalla spinning company which should  satisfy all parties, including trade unions and workers. He stressed  that there are efforts to solve the crisis of Mahalla spinning and called on workers to return to work again to proceed the wheel of production in the company, noting that all the demands will be discussed and most of them will be met soon.