Statement
No For the Security Attack Against Workers
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Center for Trade Union and Workers Services , 24 May 2010: On Sunday 23rd May 2010 the security forces attacked the workers demonstrations and dispersed the sit-ins of Amonsito Textiles Company, the Nubariya Workers and the Telephone factory workers. It is a clear expression of the government’s failure to deal with the workers’ crises which escalated during the last few years due to the failure of the economic policies adopted by the current as well as the previous governments. The workers have nothing too do with these policies.
The retreat of both the Ministry of Manpower and the Egyptian Trade Union Federation from the agreement signed with the Amonsito workers on 21 March - which was hardly accepted by the workers – shows that those who are responsible for the workers in Egypt do not have real solutions for the workers’ problems. The workers of Amonsito entered into negotiations and signed an agreement, then the government represented by the Ministry of Manpower fails to respect this agreement. The workers were surprised yesterday to find that they have to sign a new agreement to disburse EGP 50 million as compensation for early retirement in stead of the EGP 106 million which was decided in the previous agreement. This is not the only case. There were other agreements with the Tanta Linen Co. which are not implemented to date. The Ministry of Manpower started to evade such agreements. Earlier, there was a similar agreement with Salimco workers, etc. All this confirms that the government is not the decision taker vis-à-vis the tyranny of the businessmen and the mafia of corruption which are getting more brutalized in shade of the infamous privatization program.
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The workers protesting in front of the People’s Assembly have fair rights and demands which were not denied by any government official who always declared that the workers are right and that they are seeking solutions for their problems.
Using force yesterday against the workers’ sit-ins in front of the People’s Assembly indicates not only that the government has failed to keep its promise to solve these problems, but also that the return to use violence against workers protests means that the coming period will witness more eruptions between the government and the people especially with the increasing repercussions of the economic and social crises which affect the majority of the Egyptian people.
What happened in front of the People’s Assembly - either by using force vis-à-vis the angry workers of Amonsito or forcing the other protesting workers to evacuate the pavement of the Assembly – shuts off the expression outlets of workers who miss real trade unions to express their interests and negotiate on their demands.
While the Center for Trade Union and Workers Services (CTUWS) emphasizes the importance of disseminating and activating the culture of collective bargaining which is considered the optimal and only exit from the current societal congestion, it emphasizes that the minimum success of collective bargaining can only be achieved when the negotiators take their decisions by themselves; otherwise the outcome will not go beyond signing agreements which cannot be achieved. The CTUWS calls upon all the democratic powers of the Egyptian society to face this unjustifiable fierce attack against the workers and upholds the margin of expression which the Egyptian workers managed to obtain recently. The CTUWS emphasizes as well that violence had never been a successful method to solves crises. Violence was always a factor to increase the severity of congestion inside the society and to jeopardize stability.