(Joel Beinin, a contributing editor of Middle East Report, is director of Middle East studies at the American University in Cairo. Hossam el-Hamalawy is a Cairo-based journalist and blogger.)
For background on worker protest in Egypt, see Joel Beinin, "Popular Social Movements and the Future of Egyptian Politics," Middle East Report Online, March 10, 2005. [LINK: <http://www.merip.org/mero/mero031005.html>.]
For the last ten years Muhammad 'Attar, 36, has worked in the finishing department at the gigantic Misr Spinning and Weaving Company complex at Mahalla al-Kubra in the middle of the Nile Delta. He takes home a basic wage of about $30. With profit sharing and incentives, his net pay is about $75 a month. His 33-year-old wife, Nasra 'Abd al-Maqsoud al-Suwaydi, makes about $70 a month working in the ready-made clothing division of the same firm.
These wages are barely adequate to feed, house, clothe and pay for obligatory after-school private lessons for their three sons: Magdi (age 12), 'Umar (age 10) and 'Ali (age 5). The 'Attar family income is nearly double the absolute poverty line of $975 a year for a family of five in an urban zone of the Nile Delta, but well below both the upper and lower international poverty lines set by the World Bank.[1]
Sayyid Habib began working at the Misr Spinning and Weaving Company in 1964, when he was 18. After 44 years of service, he earns a basic wage of about $40 a month plus profit sharing and incentives.
Workers like 'Attar and Habib tolerate such low wages because the Misr firm is part of Egypt's large public sector. Manual workers and white-collar employees in the public sector have jobs for life and the right to a pension equal to 80 percent of their salary at retirement. Since 2004, however, the Egyptian government has renewed its drive to privatize the textile industry. Workers fear that the new investors, many of them from India, will not provide them with the job security or the benefits they and other public-sector workers have enjoyed since most textile mills, along with other large and medium-sized enterprises in all sectors of the economy, were nationalized in the early 1960s under Gamal Abdel Nasser. These fears have led to an unprecedented wave of wildcat strikes, which, since late 2004, have been centered in the textile sector, but have spread to other industries as well. In late 2006 and 2007, the strike wave has reached a particularly high crest.
Since the enactment of Egypt's Unified Labor Law of 2003, it has technically been legal for workers to strike, but only if approved by the leadership of the General Federation of Egyptian Trade Unions. Since the federation, along with the sectoral general unions and most enterprise-level union committees, are firmly in the grip of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), all actual strikes since 2003 have been "illegal."
Muhammad 'Attar and Sayyid Habib were among the leaders of a December 2006 strike at Misr Spinning and Weaving, one of the most militant and politically significant in the current strike wave. This upsurge of labor collective action has occurred amidst the broader political ferment that began in December 2004 with taboo-breaking demonstrations targeting President Husni Mubarak personally, demanding that he not run for reelection in 2005 (he did) and that his son, Gamal, not succeed him as president. An amendment to the constitution permitting the first-ever multi-candidate presidential election generated expectations that the 2005 presidential and parliamentary elections would be fair and democratic. These hopes were frustrated. Nonetheless, a wide swathe of the public, which is mostly engrossed in trying to earn a living, began to take notice of politics.
With the election of 88 Muslim Brothers in 2005, Egypt's normally sleepy Parliament acquired a substantial opposition bloc that has exerted continual pressure on the regime. Inexperienced in handling serious public debate, the regime has begun to crack down viciously on all manner of dissenters -- from Muslim Brothers to bloggers and journalists. The passage of a second round of constitutional amendments in March 2007 will make it much more difficult for independents and Muslim Brothers to run for political office and permanently allow abusive police practices that have been nominally illegal or permissible only under the "temporary" state of emergency in force since 1981.
Even before the regime's crackdown, there was a marked decline in the activity of the well-known Kifaya movement and other extra-parliamentary forms of opposition. But the wave of strikes and other forms of working-class collective action continues unabated. It represents the most substantial and broad-based kind of resistance to the regime -- one that must be handled very delicately if Husni Mubarak hopes to maintain the "stability" he needs to pass the presidency on to his son, as most Egyptians are convinced he seeks to do.
A FIGHTING SPIRIT
The 24,000 workers at Mahalla al-Kubra's Misr Spinning and Weaving complex were thrilled to receive news on March 3, 2006 that Prime Minister Ahmad Nazif had decreed an increase in the annual bonus given to all public-sector manufacturing workers, from a constant 100 Egyptian pounds ($17) to a two-month salary bonus. The last time annual bonuses were raised was in 1984 -- from 75 to 100 pounds.
"We read the decree, and started spreading awareness about it in the factory," said 'Attar. "Ironically, even the pro-government labor union officials were also publicizing the news as one of their achievements." He continued: "December [when annual bonuses are paid] came, and everyone was anxious. We discovered we'd been ripped off. They only offered us the same old 100 pounds. Actually, 89 pounds, to be more precise, since there are deductions [for taxes]."[2]
<http://www.merip.org/mero/mero_graphics/mero032507-2.jpg> Striking Misr Spinning and Weaving Company workers in Mahalla al-Kubra. (Nasser Nouri)
A fighting spirit was in the air. Over the following two days, groups of workers refused to accept their salaries in protest. Then, on December 7, thousands of workers from the morning shift started assembling in Mahalla's Tal'at Harb Square, facing the entrance to the mill. The pace of factory work was already slowing, but production ground to a halt when around 3,000 female garment workers left their stations, and marched over to the spinning and weaving sections, where their male colleagues had not yet stopped their machines. The female workers stormed in chanting: "Where are the men? Here are the women!" Ashamed, the men joined the strike.
Around 10,000 workers gathered in the square, shouting "Two months! Two months!" to assert their claim to the bonuses they had been promised. Black-clad riot police were quickly deployed around the factory and throughout the town, but they did not act to quell the protest. "They were shocked by our numbers," 'Attar said. "They were hoping we'd fizzle out by the night or the following day." With the encouragement of state security, management offered a bonus of 21 days' pay. But, as 'Attar laughingly recalled, "The women [workers] almost tore apart every representative from the management who came to negotiate."
As night fell, said Sayyid Habib, the men found it "very difficult to convince the women to go home. They wanted to stay and sleep over. It took us hours to convince them to go home to their families, and return the following day." Grinning broadly, 'Attar added, "The women were more militant than the men. They were subject to security intimidation and threats, but they held out."
Before dawn prayers, riot police rushed in the mill compound's gates. Seventy workers, including 'Attar and Habib, were sleeping inside the mill, where they had locked themselves in. "The state security officers told us we were few, and had better get out," said 'Attar. "But they did not know how many of us were inside. We lied and told them we were thousands." 'Attar and Habib hastily wakened their comrades and together the workers began banging loudly on iron barrels. "We woke up everyone in the company and town. Our mobile phones ran out of credit as we were calling our families and friends outside, asking them to open their windows and let security know they were watching. We called all the workers we knew to tell them to hurry up to the factory."
By then, police had cut off water and power to the mill. State agents scurried to the train stations to tell workers coming from out of town that the factory had been closed down due to an electrical malfunction. The ruse failed.
"More than 20,000 workers showed up," said 'Attar. "We had a massive demonstration, and staged mock funerals for our bosses. The women brought us food and cigarettes and joined the march. Security did not dare to step in. Elementary school pupils and students from the nearby high schools took to the streets in support of the strikers." On the fourth day of the mill occupation, panicking government officials offered a 45-day bonus and gave assurances the company would not be privatized. The strike was suspended, with the government-controlled trade union federation humiliated by the success of the Misr Spinning and Weaving workers' unauthorized action.
THE BIGGEST BLOW
Soon thereafter, activists like 'Attar and Habib wound up to deliver what could be the biggest blow of all to the federation. The strike leaders launched a campaign to impeach local union officials, who had opposed the strike and who, according to activists, enjoy close ties with the security services.
By the end of January, around 12,800 workers had signed a petition addressed to the General Union of Textile Workers, demanding impeachment of the Mahalla local union committee and the holding of new elections. The Misr workers gave the General Union a February 15 deadline, by which they would need to sack the local union officials or face mass resignations from the General Federation, the workers' first step toward building an independent labor union.
Federation bosses adamantly opposed the impeachment demand, fearing it would trigger a flurry of similar initiatives elsewhere. Instead, General Union negotiators floated the idea of a "Representatives' Committee" to work side by side with the committee the workers were trying to impeach. This Representatives' Committee would include about 105 workers, elected straight from the shop floor. A worker activist who attended the meeting said that Federation representatives implied that the old committee would be "marginalized" and that the Representatives' Committee would eventually have "more say in how things are run in the mill." The General Union refused to put anything on paper, however. The workers, 'Attar said, got the feeling that "the representatives would be janitors for the union officials."
Since these talks broke down, workers have been mailing their resignations to the General Union of Textile Workers on a daily basis, said 'Attar and Habib. By early March, the two activists estimated, 6,000 resignations had been dispatched. A worker-management showdown is expected by the end of March, because then the union should stop deducting the workers' membership dues automatically from salaries. The workers do not expect their resignations to be honored.
REVERBERATIONS
The outcome of this battle, which could drag on for months, may well determine the course of the labor movement in the years to come. The victory achieved by the Mahalla strikers has already reverberated throughout the textile sector. In the three months following the December 2006 strike, about 30,000 workers in more than ten textile mills in the Nile Delta and Alexandria participated in protests ranging from strikes and slowdowns to threats of collective action if they did not get what the Mahalla strikers won.
In virtually all cases, the government succumbed. As in Mahalla al-Kubra, riot police were deployed around the mills, besieging the compounds, but in no case did they make good on threats to break the strikes by force. In most cases, local union officials opposed the strikes, and attempted to abort them. At the Misr mills in Kafr al-Dawwar, the strikers "detained" union officials inside the factory to compel them to join the strike.
While hostility toward the union bureaucracy prevails everywhere, only the strikers of Kafr al-Dawwar and the Shibin al-Kum Spinning Company have pressed the Mahalla demand to impeach local union officials. There was talk of this demand in other locations, but so far it has not materialized. In one case, the workers dropped the demand following the end of the strike; in another, they filed a lawsuit.[3] But there has been no mobilization on the ground to support such legal action.
According to labor activists in Kafr al-Dawwar, Mahalla al-Kubra and Cairo, most strike leaders do not belong to a political organization, and regard political parties with suspicion. Nor is there evidence of logistical coordination between shops, though strikers have received news of triumphs elsewhere with enthusiasm. According to one report from Kafr al-Dawwar, "Receiving the news of their colleagues in Zifta, [the strikers] celebrated the victory, chanting: 'Strike until death! Strike until payment!'"[4]
The Misr Spinning and Weaving strike has also found echoes in workers' struggles outside the textile sector, though there has been no active coordination. In December, cement factories in Helwan and Tura went on strike. At the same time, auto workers in Mahalla al-Kubra staged a strike and sit-in.
In January, railway engineers went on strike, blocking the first-class Turbini train from Cairo to Alexandria that primarily transports businessmen and professionals. They later threatened a national work stoppage, until the government agreed to most of their demands and promised to acquiesce in more. During the railway strike, the Cairo subway drivers slowed the speed of their trains from 55 to 20 miles per hour in solidarity. Railway strikers spoke of how "encouraged they were by the victory at Mahalla." There were also wildcat strikes by truck and microbus drivers, poultry farmers, garbage collectors, and public gardeners and sanitation workers.
There are signs that militant textile workers are pushing for a mechanism of national cooperation. One month after the victory of the strike in Kafr al-Dawwar, a statement signed by "Workers for Change in Kafr al-Dawwar" was distributed in the factory, calling for "expanding coordination between workers in companies that went on strike with us, to create the necessary solidarity links and exchange experiences." . . . .
FULL TEXT: <http://www.merip.org/mero/mero032507.html> -- Yoshie
