The verdict issued by Maadi felonies court imprisoning 32 of the Tora Cement workers for 3 years hard labour is an adequate title of the deteriorating conditions that Egyptian workers. Workers suffer from deteriorating economic and social conditions as a result of the economic measures aiming at reforming the Egyptian economy at the expense of the poor and they alone bear the cost of this alledged reform. Meanwhile the government works deligently to silence any voice that raises to demand any of the wasted workers’ rights. Their penalty is always either imprisonment or termination of their jobs.

This is what actually happened to the workers of Tora Cement whose sole fault is that they demanded the application of the court verdict that stipulates that they should be appointed in the company and should be equated to their appointed colleagues since they have been working in accordance to temporary contracts for periods ranging from 10 to 15 years.

The Center for Trade Union and Worker Services has always denounced the employment of workers through labour contractors with temporary contracts. This means that we face workers with no legal or union protection. In the context of its opposition to the new labour law CTUWS has primarily pointed out seeking to legalize the conditions of these labour contracting firms without much attention to the protection of the workers and the guarantee of their rights

CTUWS announces its solidarity with the imprisoned workers and calls upon all the labour and democratic powers to support and express solidarity with the workers of Tora Cement and it believes that the use of forces in the face of labour movements and the postulation of the workers’ right to expression and peaceful strikes will push society towards further congestion and aggravation.