Mahalla updates
I was chatting today with a labor organizer, and I was shocked to hear from him that the number of labor force in Ghazl el-Mahalla has gone down to 18,000, from 27,000 workers in 2006. The drastic decrease, he said, was due to increased pressure from the management on workers to accept early buyout packages, coupled with the increasingly dismal conditions of machinery which has given the workers a bleak view of the company’s future.
Organizing on the shop floor has been suffered a great set back following the failure of the 6 April 2008 strike to materialize, despite the eruption of the city in a two day uprising. A protest was organized in October 2008, followed by another crackdown where labor organizers were transferred to the company branches outside the Nile Delta.
The strike movement, though sparked by Ghazl el-Mahalla, has not died down with the downturn in industrial action in the factory. Already there has been a spat of strikes in other textile firms in the city, especially those in the Qualified Industrial Zones, and others. And recently there has been protests among the hospital workers in town, among whom many are relatives of workers in the textile firm.
The factory is still a heavy weight player in the labor arena, even when it’s witnessing a downturn. A revival in the militancy is not impossible.
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