Kamal Abu Eita, president of the independent General Union of Real Estate Tax Authority Employees, denouncing Hussein Megawer and his corrupt state-backed General Federation of Trade Unions, during a Workers’ Preparatory Committee meeting, Thursday evening, Cairo’s Press Syndicate…
Kamal Abu Eita, president of the independent General Union of Real Estate Tax Authority Employees, denouncing Hussein Megawer and his corrupt state-backed General Federation of Trade Unions, during a Workers’ Preparatory Committee meeting, Thursday evening, Cairo’s Press Syndicate…
The Independent Union of Real Estate Tax Collectors is coming under fire again from the state-run unions and press…
Socialist Lawyer Haitham Mohamadein (R), the Free Union‘s legal consultant, discussing the prospects of self management of factories in Egypt today…
Kamal Abu Eita’s interrogation has been postponed, due to his refusal to show up at the North Giza prosecutor’s office today. HIs lawyer Haitham Mohamadein said no exact date has been set by the prosecutor yet, but it’s expected to be on Wednesday or Thursday.
An IPS report by Cam McGrath, that includes an interview with me on the fight for free unions in Egypt…
CAIRO, Aug 18 (IPS) – Property tax collectors from across Egypt gathered last week in Cairo to protest fresh attempts by the official state trade union to undermine their independent syndicate.
“By soul, by blood…we will fight for our fund”, they chanted, accusing state union leaders of attempting to “hijack” their worker retirement fund.
It is the latest charge in the escalating feud between the mammoth Egyptian Trade Union Federation (ETUF) and members of the newly formed Union of Real Estate Tax Authority Employees (URETAE), Egypt’s first independent trade union since 1957.
Property tax collectors established the independent union in April – a bold move that raised hackles at ETUF, the state-controlled body that has monopolised union organisation and worker affairs for more than half a century. ETUF officials have vehemently denounced the unaffiliated worker syndicate, declaring it an “illegal entity” and pressuring authorities at all levels to disavow its existence.
Over 37,000 of the country’s 55,000 property tax collectors are reported to have joined the independent union, which was formed after tax authority workers grew frustrated by the lack of support they received from pro- government union leaders during a strike in 2007. The 11-day sit-in ended when state officials conceded to workers’ demands for better pay.
“We slept on the streets to secure our rights once before, and we’re ready to do it again if that’s what it takes,” says URETAE president Kamal Abu Eita.
The struggle for an independent union did not end with its creation; members have had to defend it. Abu Eita accuses state union leaders of carrying out a campaign of harassment and intimidation against the free union’s staff and members, including several cases of physical assault.
Property tax collectors complain that while they pay subscription fees to URETAE, the government has refused to accept their resignation from ETUF, and is still deducting the state union’s dues from their monthly salaries. Moreover, ETUF lawyers have filed corruption charges against the independent union, accusing its leaders of soliciting illegal funds in the form of membership fees.
“It is forbidden for a union to collect money unless it has been established in accordance with Egypt’s union laws,” a senior ETUF official told IPS. “Therefore, all fees collected by this syndicate are illegal.”
Abu Eita says the independent union filed all the required registration paperwork at the labour ministry on Apr. 21. The government had 30 days to challenge the establishment of the union in court, but did not.
The latest showdown came after finance minister Youssef Boutros Ghali issued a decree Jul. 28 to establish a social welfare fund for URETAE members. The following week, reportedly at the behest of ETUF chairman Hussein Megawer, the minister revised the decree, assigning the management of the fund to the National Trade Union of Banks, Insurance and Financial Affairs, one of 23 ETUF subsidiaries.
Tarek Mostafa, a tax collector and the independent union’s treasurer, vowed to keep the fund out of government hands.
“For more than a year and a half our union has been struggling to create this social welfare fund, and everything was financed from the members’ own pockets,” he said in an interview to the independent El-Masry El-Youm newspaper. “Attributing ownership of the fund to ETUF means they will control everything. The fund’s assets are almost 1.12 billion Egyptian pounds (216 million dollars). Now that it has cash, they want to get their hands on it.”
The ongoing struggle for the recognition and rights of the independent union is part of a wave of labour unrest that has rippled across Egypt for nearly three years. In December 2006, more than 27,000 workers at the Misr Spinning and Weaving Company in the northern industrial city Mahalla El- Kubra defied the state’s ban on unauthorised labour stoppages and went on strike over unpaid bonuses.
The industrial action kicked off a wave of wildcat strikes across the country – involving everyone from textile workers to train conductors to oil company employees.
Strikes can be contained – pro-government union leaders, riot police and hired thugs see to that. But labour experts say the formation of an independent union represents a more corrosive threat to the 28-year rule of President Hosni Mubarak, as it erodes the power of state’s primary structure for controlling and mobilising the masses.
“The state-backed general federation (ETUF) is not a labour union in the proper sense, rather it’s the arm of the state for controlling working class movements,” says Hossam El-Hamalawy, journalist and labour activist. “When it comes to parliamentary elections, the government may strike deals with the Muslim Brotherhood, or sometimes turn a blind eye to opposition…but with general federation elections, which happen every five years, the government will never (relinquish) a single seat.”
According to El-Hamalawy, ETUF elections are carefully orchestrated to ensure that union heads are loyal to Mubarak’s National Democratic Party (NDP). The federation, in turn, busses workers to polling stations during general elections to vote for the NDP, mobilises workers for pro-government rallies, and suppresses strikes to ensure that the state has a steady supply of cheap labour.
“Once you start getting cracks in the federation, you can start talking about the end of the dictatorship,” he asserts.
El-Hamalawy highlights the historical role that independent unions played in the political transformation of authoritarian regimes in South Korea and Poland. “Getting free unions was always the silver bullet,” he says. “When free unions strike, mobilise mass protests and get the machines to stop working – that’s when you hit (the regime) where it hurts the most.”
Opinion is divided whether the launch of the independent union has enough force to spill over into other sectors. Analysts point out that in the four months since the property tax collectors registered their union, no other professional group has followed suit. Employees of the textile and postal sectors have called for free unions, and threatened to impeach local labour leaders, but divided leadership and heavy police crackdowns have thwarted any progress.
“The question of free trade unions has been on the agenda in recent years, and will remain so,” says labour expert Ragui Assaad. “Whether this is the experiment that will actually start the process rolling, I am not sure – it very much depends on how strong the reaction from the state will be.”
So far, police have allowed striking property tax collectors to demonstrate in cordoned off areas outside government buildings. But the presence of several hundred riot police and the Mubarak regime’s track record of using force to suppress labour unrest make a violent confrontation likely.
A video of the Real Estate Tax Collectors‘ strike on Tuesday, by Al-Masry Al-Youm‘s multimedia team…
Note the strikers’ chants against the (Gamal Mubarak-led) NDP Policies Secretariat…
The UK Public and Commercial Services Union has sent a message of support to the Free Union activists…
The Public & Commercial Services Union would like to send a message of support and solidarity to our colleagues in RETA for your dispute over the social welfare fund and the right to organise peacefully to improve terms and conditions for property tax collectors. We hope that today’s strike action is successful in achieving your aims.
Hugh Lanning
PCS Deputy General Secretary
Tom Flynn
Executive Officer – DGS Office
UPDATE: Another message of solidarity….
Fraternal greetings and hopes for a successful and just victory in your dispute. I know our national union is sending a message of support but please also accept the best wishes of the PCS Central London (property) Valuation Branch ( we do similar work to yourselves); our members have been impressed by the courage and determination you have shown in your struggles for workers’ rights.
Andy Reid, on behalf of PCS Central London Valuation Branch and in a personal capacity as a member of the PCS National Executive Committee
My report for Al-Masry Al-Youm…
More than 1000 property tax collectors are staging a sit-in, downtown Cairo, demanding job reforms and a halt to what they called a crackdown on their independent union.
Protestors—wearing facial “swine flu masks,” with the words “Independent Union” written on them—are accusing Finance Minister Youssef Boutross Ghali of “betraying” a deal struck with the independent representatives over a social welfare fund on 28 July, by which every retired tax collector would have received a 110-month pay.
“After issuing a Ministerial Decree, documented in the official state organ, the minister ‘readjusted’ his decree and gave the project to the government union,” Tarek Mostafa, a Qalyoubia tax collector and the independent union’s treasurer, said bitterly. “We are here today to make the whole world know we are against this, and will fight till the last breath to defend our children’s money,” continued Mostafa as he tried with difficulty to move between the crowd in Hussein Hegazi Street, facing the ministerial cabinet headquarters.
At least five Central Security Forces trucks have arrived quickly in the scene, with black-uniformed soldiers in full gear, forming a cordon around the protestors, but no clashes are reported. Plainclothes security informers could be spotted on both ends of street.
Abdel Qader Nada, one of the Giza tax collectors and independent union leaders, shouted: “we will not be afraid! We will not hide behind walls. This is our (social welfare) fund! This is our union!” The crowd roared, as they started beating the drums. “Are we willing to stay here (in Hussein Hegazi St.) for a year?” The crowd answered: “Yes!”
“What does the government need more to recognize who are the true representatives of the civil servants?” exclaimed Kamal Abu Eita, a Giza tax collector and the charismatic president of the independent union. “We slept in the street for 11 days to get our rights in 2007. We are prepared to do it again.”
Abu Eita, carried on the shoulders, grabbed the microphone, and started to lead the chants. The lion share of the demonstrators’ wrath fell upon Hussein Megawer, a senior parliamentarian with the ruling National Democratic Party and the president of the state-backed General Federation of Trade Unions.
The civil servants are part of the 55,000-strong Egypt’s Real Estate Tax Authority employees, who have already started a national strike today. In addition to the fight over the social welfare fund, the strikers are also demanding a three-month pay of incentives, transportation allowance, and a halt to the crackdown on the independent union activists in Giza and the provinces.
The current strike is the latest round in an ongoing battle over trade union rights in the country. Since December 2006, Egypt has been witnessing the strongest wave of labor strikes since 1946. The strikes were met with hostility from the state-backed General Federation of Trade Unions, triggering a campaign by strike leaders in different sectors to either impeach the government union officials, or launch a parallel independent union. The first to achieve that were the tax collectors, who struck for three months in the fall of 2007, occupying Hussein Hegazi Street for 12 days. Their strike resulted in a 325% increase in their relatively low salaries, and the unofficial strike leadership went on to found the country’s first independent trade union since 1957.
“We are left with no other choice but to strike,” Gamal Ouweida, a tax collector from the Daqahliya province, said. “You don’t know what they are doing to us. The government is using provocateurs and traitors from the state union to divide our ranks, smear us, defame us, and fabricate charges against us. Enough is Enough.”
Relations between the independent union and the state-backed Federation have been tense. The latter has incited, according to the independent trade unionists, a government-led campaign of witch hunt, and in cases like in the Gharbeia and Sharqiya Nile Delta provinces as well as in the Upper Egyptian province of Bani Sueif, physical fights already broke out between the government union officials and the independent union activists.
Today’s protestors carried banners describing the head of the General Federation of Trade Unions and Farouk Shehata, the head of the state-backed General Union of Bank, Insurance and Finance Workers, as “thieves.”
Said Ahmad Mukhtar, a young Cairo tax collector: “The government knows we are a threat to its (General) Federation. They want to crush us and crush anyone who wants to defend the workers’ rights.”
There was strong participation of women in the protest, just like the 2007 strike. Many, veiled and some in Niqab, have already left their families behind in the provinces to come join the occupation. Others like Cairo Tax Collector Madeeha, brought “my two children with me today. They should know their mother sweats in order to bring food on their table,” she said as she was adjusting the facial mask on one of her kids’.
“Down with Megawer! Down with Farouk!” chanted a group of women tax collectors, who stood together holding a banner that reads “The Independent Union – Alexandria.”
While their strike continues nationally, the downtown protestors are expected to vote by 6pm on whether to continue the Hussein Hegazi Street sit-in or not.
A video by the Al-Masry Al-Youm’s Multimedia team on the Real Estate Tax Collectors‘ protest last Thursday…
The countdown to the national strike has already started… Long Live the Free Union…
Hossam el-Hamalawy is an Egyptian journalist from Cairo
hossam [at] arabawy [dot] org
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