Rising prices, falling wages in Egypt stoke labor unrest

MAHALLA EL-KOBRA, Egypt — Labor activist Kamal al-Fayoumi has lost none of his swagger since being fired from the sprawling Egyptian textile plant where he worked for three decades and was known as an agitator.

Striding through a gritty industrial town in the Nile Delta, he proudly points to workers’ clubs, cooperative grocery stores, cinemas, a pool and a hospital — all of which have seen better days — and brushes off threats from management and the police.

“Our forefathers built this place, it’s in our blood,” he said, looking on the Misr Spinning and Weaving Company, Egypt’s largest factory. “We shouldn’t be afraid, they should fear us!”

Hard times in Egypt have spurred an increase in labor unrest, even as President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi’s government has largely succeeded in quashing political demonstrations over the past two years. Rising prices, low wages and delays in salaries and bonuses have workers vowing more strikes and protests, even at the risk of a violent crackdown.

Since last month, workers have held sit-ins at Alexandria’s port and even in Cairo, flouting a 2013 ban on protests decreed after the military overthrew Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.

Thousands protested at a total of 493 actions in the first four months of 2016, a 25 percent increase from the same period a year ago, according to Democracy Meter, an Egyptian NGO that tracks and verifies protests using multiple sources.

“Labor tried to give el-Sissi a chance. But you can’t take away peoples’ rights and fail to fix poverty simultaneously,” said Mohamed Adel, the director of the group. He said the actions range from work stoppages to peaceful marches and pickets.

Security forces have waged a crackdown on dissent since Morsi’s ouster, arresting thousands of his Islamist supporters as well as prominent liberal and secular activists.

But while authorities banned a march on International Workers Day last month organized by independent trade unions, they have not targeted labor activists with mass arrests, perhaps fearing a backlash.

Former President Hosni Mubarak kept a tight lid on labor unrest during most of his 30 years in power, permitting only state-controlled unions in a tradition dating back to the days of socialist leader Gamal Abdel Nasser. But the independent unions began holding protests in the twilight years of Mubarak’s reign, and workers assumed a major role in the 2011 uprising that ended it.

Since then, organized labor has been under intense scrutiny.

Earlier this year, an Italian doctoral student who had been writing his thesis about independent unions was found tortured to death. Giulio Regeni disappeared on the Jan. 25 anniversary of the revolt, when security forces were out in force in central Cairo. Police have denied any involvement, but Italy withdrew its ambassador, saying Egypt was not fully cooperating with the investigation.

A draft law is in the works that would further delegitimize independent organizing, and a lawsuit filed by the official state union, expected to be decided later this summer, seeks to criminalize non-official trade unions. The government has also renewed efforts to shut down NGOs that receive foreign funding, which could affect unions with links to international labor movements.

At the International Labor Organization’s annual conference in Geneva this week, Egyptian Labor Minister Mohamed Saafan gave a speech that made no mention of independent unions, focusing instead on state sovereignty and the fight against poverty.

BRIAN ROHAN/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Kamal al-Fayoumi stands May 10 in front of Misr Spinning and Weaving Company in Mahalla el-Kobra, Egypt. Al-Fayoumi, a labor activist, was fired from the company after nearly three decades of work.