CTUWS – 7 April 2015
Under a suspicious governmental silence, the workers of “Torah Cement” pursue their sit-in inside the headquarters of the factory for ten consecutive days against the decision of the administration to reduce the percentage of annual profits from 25 months to three months pretending that “Italy Cement” revenues have decreased.  This decision comes while an agreement was concluded in 2006 about the percentage of profits allocated to workers following a strike that led to the first collective agreement in Egypt.
Actually, the administration of the company has issued yesterday a memo confirming the decision of stopping work for an indefinite period in an attempt to exert pressure over the workers to disband the sit-in.  However, the workers maintain that they will pursue their protest until their demands are met.
It is worth mentioning that “Italy Cement” is affiliated to an Italian firm possessing 65% of its shares in addition to the totality of those of “Torah Cement” factory and over 80% of “Suez Cement” factory.  During the last months, the Italian firm has entirely relied in its production on “Torah Cement” and “Suez Cement” factories purposely attempting to provoke losses for “Torah Cement” in order to pressure workers to accept changing the clauses of the collective agreement mentioned above.  In this context, blast furnaces number 5 and 7 were stopped as well as eight mills resulting in the disappearance of seven types of cement that were a very specific distinguished production of the factory.
CTUWS declares by this statement its full solidarity with the legitimate demands of the workers, considering the administration attitude as a proof that there is a concerted intention to pursue the scenario of provoking losses to “Torah Cement” whose 65% of shares are owned by the two other factories even if this causes the roving of one thousand families.
In addition, CTUWS expresses its deep concern about the unexplained governmental silence, specifically that of the minister of labor and migration, and calls the prime minister to intervene in order to stop the violations perpetrated by the Italian firm regardless any previous commitments and in contradiction with the Egyptian laws.  It is obvious that the objective of the Italian firm is to monopolize the market of cement in Egypt, especially that the last decisions are clearly following the Conference on the Egyptian Economy that approved many projects in the field of building and construction, implying a wider space for the market of cement.