10,000 Egyptian workers call for national wage increase
Agence France-Presse
First Posted 23:42:00 02/18/2008
CAIRO -- At least 10,000 employees of Egypt's biggest textile factory protested against price hikes on Monday, demanding a sharp rise in the minimum wage nationwide in the first such protest in decades.
Thousands of textile workers gathered at the Ghazl al-Mahalla factory north of Cairo shouting slogans to protest against the rise in the price of basic commodities, a security source told Agence France-Presse.
The workers are demanding that the minimum wage be raised to 1,200 Egyptian pounds ($218) a month for all workers around the country.
"This is the first time there's a big workers' demonstration for national demands," said Sameh Naguib, a sociologist at the American University in Cairo. "This hasn't happened for decades."
The demonstration at Mahalla, which has seen a string of strikes in recent years, came as the government's National Council for Wages met to discuss raising the minimum wage from the current 105 Egyptian pounds.
It is the latest in a spate of industrial action in the country.
Egyptian civil servants working for the Real Estate tax office held a sit-in in December demanding to raise their monthly average from 300 pounds to 1,500.
In September, at least 24,000 workers at the Mahalla factory went on strike over unpaid profit shares and low wages.
The government subsequently agreed to their demands and similar strikes were held in other factories.
"Maybe it's because of this year of strikes, there's a lot of pressure (on the government) to come up with a statement or a plan of action," said Naguib. "Under this pressure they have to do something serious."
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