Workers & Unions | “In the Labor Month: Layoffs, Compulsory Pension and False Accusations for Workers and Journalists” Conference Report
Today, the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights (ECESR) organized a press conference titled “In the Labor Month: Layoffs, Compulsory Retirement and False Accusations for Workers and Journalists”. The conference highlighted the situation of fired workers in Mahalla Textiles, Cairo Transportation Authority (CTA), ASENPRO/ASEC, Petroshahd, Asfour Crystal, in addition to Al-Yawm al-Sabi’, Al-Shorouq and Almasry Alyawm newspapers.
Kamal El-Fayoumi represented Mahalla Textiles workers, Ahmad Mahmoud represented CTA workers, and Wael Abdel-Aziz represented the fired journalists. ASENPRO workers were not able to attend because of security threats after their sit-in at the Maadi headquarters was disbanded. Petroshahd and Asfour Crystal workers did not attend as well.
Alaa Abdel-Tawab represented ECESR to highlight the ruling issued by the Supreme Administrative Court to force striking employees into compulsory retirement, while labor lawyer Haitham Mohammadein talked about the legislative environment that takes the side of businessmen.
False accusations for labor leaders
Kamal El-Fayoumi started by saying that firing the workers is not the issue, but the country is. He mentioned that he participated in the strikes of Mahalla Textiles on 2006, 2007 and 2008. He added that all the strikes were demanding an end to corruptible policies that leads the company to intentional losses. He said that these policies are still in place until now, as the Accountability State Authority (ASA) report uncovered. The report predicted the company will lost 1,300 million pounds this year.
كمال الفيومى : ” فصلت انا و ثلاثة من زملائى #العمال بسبب فضحنا للفساد و طلبنا لوقف سياسات الفساد” pic.twitter.com/GfrqOkbKdf
— المركز المصري للحقوق (@ecesr) May 12, 2015
“How does the state relieve the investor, who I consider a settler, of his share in social security for workers and from paying taxes?” El-Fayoumi asked. “I and my colleague Gamal Gad were fired because we stood up to corruption. In the latest strike that took place in February and went on for 13 days, the new prime Minister vowed to hold corrupted company officials accountable and provide cotton for production to continue, right after the Beblawi government was removed. This did not happen, and the company losses increased according to the ASA report. The ASA refused approving the latest budget due to the grave and unaccountable losses.” He went on saying that holding corruption accountable will continue, and that the revolution lives on, and so are the demands for bread, freedom and social justice.
After that, Ahmed Mahmoud, CTA employee and member of the Independent Union for North Cairo (Mazallat), took the microphone. Mahmoud suffered because of his stands demanding workers right against the tyranny of CTA management that filed six lawsuits against him at the State Council until now for charges of inciting strikes.
احمد سوكس : لن انكر تحريضى على #الاضراب ضد #الفساد pic.twitter.com/wHXKhqU1L0 — المركز المصري للحقوق (@ecesr) May 12, 2015
Ahmed Mahmoud mentioned many mottos. He started by saying: “Welcome in the Businessman Day. They are celebrating by firing employees,” alluding to the president who celebrated Labor Day at the Police Academy in the presence of businessmen and the dubious Egyptian Trade Union Federation (ETUF) in the absence of celebrated workers.
“Mr. President, under your reign the Supreme Administrative Court is sending striking workers to retirement. The top graduates are not hired. Strikes were banned. The Law of Civil Service was enacted against the interests of the employees,” he said.
Mahmoud pointed out that workers were the igniters of the January revolution, which is why they are punished for striking. He stressed that firing workers will not affect them because their demands are legitimate, which is why unionists are paying the bill of the revolution and inciting strikes. He mentioned that Ali Fattouh, his unionist colleague at Mazallat garage, was suspended for a month, and that unionist Tarek El-Beheri was suspended and referred to the State Council over charges of inciting strikes. “Only men are being tried before the tyrannical authority. Even if they fired us, we will fight somewhere else. We only have to stand together in solidarity,” he said.
Journalists are fired too
Many journalists attended as arbitrarily discharged workers rather than to cover the conference. As of early 2015, firing journalists is becoming almost a trend with 160 in Al-Ahram newspapers, 134 in Al-Yawm Al-Sabi’, 76 in DotMsr website, 30 in Al-Dostoor, 18 in Al-Shorouq, 12 in Ajel website, and 4 in Almasry Alyawm. Wael Abdel-Aziz of Al-Yawm Al-Sabi’ talked on behalf of them during the conference. He talked about journalists who became workers facing discharge after being the voice of fired workers. He pointed out that on 3 May, the Free Press Day; correspondents outside Cairo were arrested while covering events in governorates.
وائل عبد العزيز : نطالب بمعايير للاختبارات داخل المؤسسات الصحفية التى اصبحت ذريعه لفصل الزملاء الصحفيين pic.twitter.com/HwhjoHiLEw
— المركز المصري للحقوق (@ecesr) May 12, 2015
Abdel-Aziz announced in the beginning of his speech that the fired workers decided to form the “Fired Journalists Association” to stand against the trend. He read a press release illustrating their demands from the Journalists Syndicate, press institutions and the state. He also called on journalists to participate in the strike that the Journalists Syndicate member Khaled El-Balshy called for on 10 June to demand fair wages and stop discharging journalists. He also invited the fired journalists for a protest stand in front of the Journalists Syndicate next Sunday.
During his speech, Abdel-Aziz talked about the issue of journalist interns where the journalists remains an intern for an unspecified period. A journalist might reach 40, remain 15 years in the same newspaper and reach a central editing position while still an intern deprived from membership in the Journalists Syndicate. He can even be an impostor legally, and receives no help from the Syndicate.
He demanded that newspapers should report interns every six months, and that the syndicate becomes a party to contracts between the journalist and the press institution. He also demanded a revision on the draft of the amendments to law number 12 of 2003 that the Ministry of Manpower published because it hives a free hand to employers in firing workers. Finally, he asked the syndicate to play an active role in combating layoffs.
Legal views
Alaa Abdel-Tawab, head of the legal unit and responsible for the workers unit at ECESR, talked about the Supreme Administrative Court ruling to force three employees at a local council in a village in Ashmun to retirement because they organized a strike. He said that May became a month for displacement. “We are sorry that the labor judiciary are siding with businessmen and investors, and that the State Council are not defending labor rights or freedoms anymore. A ruling like this is catastrophic because it contradicts the constitution and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) that Egypt signed on 1967,” he said.
علاءعبد التواب : الحكم بتجريم الاضراب الصادر عن مجلس الدولة مخالف للدستور و المواثيق الدولية pic.twitter.com/kMe2McSvrw
— المركز المصري للحقوق (@ecesr) May 12, 2015
He pointed out to the grounds of ruling that draws upon the presidential decree issued by former president Anwar el-Sadat who stipulated that agreements should not contradict Islamic Sharia. Alaa Abdel-Tawab said this clause was only a governmental habit when signing any agreement, but Islamic Sharia did not talk about striking. Even relating to Sharia principles was not appropriate because it resorted to theory of abusing the right. Alaa mentioned that the 2014 constitution grants the right to strike in article 15, and referred to previous rulings that announced striking workers not guilty in appellate courts such as the ruling of the National Security Emergency High Court in the case of the railway strike in 1986.
Labor lawyer Haitham Mohammadein concluded the conference. He started by asking: Whose side is the Egyptian ruling regime taking? He explained that there are two types of strikes: workers’ strike, and capitalist strike. He drew comparisons between them, then asked: why does the state criminalize workers’ strikes and refer them to court with charge including disrupting public safety, halting the production cycle and belonging to terrorist organizations, but when businessmen strike nobody cares? He explained that they strike when they lead companies to intentional losses like in Mahalla Textiles, close down factories and lay off workers, or threaten to withdraw investments and exit Egypt if their demands were met in terms of labor legislations concerning social security, civil service, taxes and environment. He asked again: Did anyone in the presidency and the government accuse businessmen of sabotaging the economy or disrupting public order? Did they prevent capital from striking against the state? Why are they suing workers and not businessmen, even though workers’ demands are crumbs within the production process? Why does the state use double standards?
هيثم محمدين : تصريح #وزير_العدل ماهو الا تعبيير عن طبقة كاملة تسيطر على السلطة فى #مصر pic.twitter.com/WkhVLmWiTk
— المركز المصري للحقوق (@ecesr) May 12, 2015
Mohammadein pointed out that the constitution postulated the right to organization for workers and employers in the same article. Businessmen form industry unions and businessmen societies without harassment from security. On the other hand, unionists and labor leaders such as Yasser El-Sayed of Egypt Gas and Mohamed Zaky of Petrotrade are in prison, and when workers form their unions they are harassed through pay cuts, discharge, and detention.
He added that while the constitution bans discrimination based on religion, gender or class, we find female workers in 15 May city working like slaves, especially in QIZ companies dealing with Israel. We also find that the new law of civil service the president enacted gives Muslims one month of full pay for pilgrimage, depriving Christian workers of the same right. The ruling on the Supreme Administrative Court shows how the state is using all means against protesters, this time using Islamic Sharia to criminalize striking. He added: “We should not forget the social discrimination that was clearly manifested in the statements on the former Ministry of Justice who said the posterity of sanitation workers are banned from becoming judges, meaning Egypt is ruled as public property.” He went on saying that the statement is not the minister’s personal view, but rather represents a class consisting of leading officers and government officials. The legislation enacted in their favor confirm this, such as the law of civil service and the amendments to the labor law number 12 of 2003. These laws were supposed to be social, but they work in favor of the ruling class and businessmen.
Mohammadein signaled the gifts the regime gave to workers during the month of May. During this month, “workers from Egypt Gas were detained, bullets were fired on workers in 10th of Ramadan, labor leaders were laid off in Mahalla Textiles, other labor leaders in CTA referred to court over charges of inciting strikes, and Labor Day celebrated at the Police Academy in the presence of ETUF figures who were on top of the list of those accused of organizing the attack on protesters in Tahrir during the revolution.” El-Gebaly El-Maraghi even said during the celebration that his gift to President El-Sisi is to stop strikes. Will he and his comrades really manage to stop them? Mohammadein pointed out that Labor Day coincided with labor strikes in four sites, and added: “These figures are less important than that. The maximum they can do is report the striking workers.”
ECESR stresses it will exert all possible efforts to defend the rights of discharged workers and journalists, and support their demands of returning to work.
