The report monitors and analyzes protests of the Egyptian labourers in the deferent working sectors (public, private, environments, government) from the first of January to the end of June 2004. this report is issue no. 34 of economic and social rights series issued by LCHR.
The total labourers’ protests monitored by the center throughout the mentioned period reached 74 protests in the different sectors [24 protests in the governmental institutions – 21 protests in the private sector – 29 protests in the public works sector].
The highest ratio of protesting in the three sectors was in April (22 protests), then May (17 protests), then June (12 protests), then February (9 protests), then January (8 protests) and finally March (6 protests) that witnessed the least protests.
About the reasons that pushed labourers for organizing such protests, they were non-payment of labourers’ dues (21 protests), forced layoff (16 protests), non-payment of salaries (13 protests), non-appointment and eviction from housing (5 protests), deterioration of work conditions and early pension (3 protests), selling the company and work injury (2 protests) and finally forced administrations decisions and asking for legal rights (1 protest).
The first part “reform initiatives and labourers”; it is fast reading for the initiative of the Big Middle East that puts aside the cultural and historical sides of our area in addition to putting aside some rights especially social and economic rights for labourers and margins.
The report highlights the motives lie behind such initiative that pushed most of the Arabian countries to agree on the statement (no for the initiative) in addition to revealing the non-governmental reaction towards the initiative that ignores the participation and the role of the Arabian citizen.
The report mentions that the reasonable evaluation could be achieved only after its implementation in the practical reality, but we couldn’t ignore that the initiative reveals the wishes of the Arabian peoples for change and reform after long-term of inaction of the Arabian governments along the last decades.
Despite the discussions around the initiative that isn’t concerned with the privacy and identity of the Arabian peoples in addition its presentation of united solutions for all countries in spite of the different social, economic and political conditions of these countries, the initiative doesn’t present how these countries could deal with different obstacles to implement their programs for achieving their objectives concerning good governance, knowledge, women participation and increasing work opportunities.
Moreover, the initiative doesn’t present determined procedures through which reform and change could be achieved, for example, how the implementation of the initiative will lead to stop labourers’ layoff, guarantee the right of corporative diversity and their democratic organizations, protects citizens’ right to adequate housing and safe land possession, stops farmers’ imprisonment because of their debts to developing and agricultural credit bank and provide them with agrarian requirements of seeds and fertilizers, decreases rental of houses and arable lands coding with high prices and low incomes and promotes political rights to strike, demonstration, free-expression and establishment of parties and associations without the supervision of the states’ foundations.
In addition, the initiative doesn’t explain how its implementation will stop deterioration of main services as heath services, education, drinking water, heath and social insurance, guarantee the freedom in the private life, stop the deterioration of our deferent resources especially in land and water, stop the violations committed against fishermen, improve the unofficial working conditions, guarantee their rights in suitable working chances and stop social and formal violence committed against citizens.
Despite the disagreement and discussions around the initiative, it highlights the Arabian wounds to be examined and discussed without any shame. The center wishes if all national and democratic forces work for more joint work and solidarity for achieving real change that protect citizens’ rights to justice, freedom and humane life.
The second part “social, economic and political conditions”: it mentions that these protests were organized through a general atmosphere characterized by the continuity of the implementation of emergency law, torture inside detentions, imposing hard restrictions over the right to establish parties, associations, newspapers or syndicates, restrictions over practicing activities without the supervision or the interference of the states’ foundations and non-respect of sentences of the Egyptian judgement and violating right to demonstrate or strike.
About economic conditions, they are deteriorated because of the implementation of the policy of free market, which has led to selling the public sector companies with less than its’ lands prices, displacing workers, the spread of corruption inside the states’ foundations, the collapse of the financial sector, the increasing the local and external debts, more poverty for farmers, low growth levels, the deteriorated conditions of industry, agriculture and trade, decreasing the value of the Egyptian pound in front of the foreign currencies, the increase of the poverty rates, the ruin of services and health and educational care, the spreading of crimes and formal and informal violence the ruin of the social values in front of the values of consumption and market and the weakness of participation and loyalty.
On the other hand, labourers organize their protests to assert that there is possibility for reform and change towards more just and free world.
The third part “results and recommendations”:
-Achieve large-scale solidarity between members of syndicates, parties, people’s assembly and political forces in order to support labourers’ rights to improve their working conditions.
-Establish independent syndicates that present legal aid for labourers and support their rights in organizing and gathering.
-Establishing independent labour newspapers that support labourers rights, raise their awareness and publish their perceptions about different cases.
-Activating the role of labourers’ committees in the political parties to adopt labourers’ cases and solve their problems.
-Following up other protests organized by other categories as fishermen and farmers.
-Following up what is published about labourers’ protests in order to extract the results of the previous experiments to be used for building strong and effective labour movement.
-Revealing the problems resulted from the implementation of the new labour law as the role of the quintile committees towards postponing the examination of labourers’ cases that leads to losing their rights.
The forth part documents the labourers’ protests in the three sectors through four protest appendix and it presents several tables that show the main reasons for these protests and how these protests were done during the period that the report covers.
The center wishes if this report would create new indicators and deeper understanding throughout the coming years through which we could examine and study labourers’ problems in Egypt in order to participate in creating realistic solutions for their problems and support their rights, and the Center requests the officials and members of the local and peoples’ councils in all of the civil society foundations in Egypt to solidate with the protesting movement in Egypt in order to improve the labourers’ working conditions in adequate work opportunities for a better and more just and humane future.