Workers still search for that elusive better life

Cairo: When Ahmad Al Mahlawi, a textile worker, joined in January 2011 mass protests that eventually toppled long-standing president Hosni Mubarak, he says his demands were simple.

"All what I called for is a decent, human life. Was this too much?" fumes Al Mahlawi, a father of five. "Like thousands of Egyptians who flocked to Tahrir Square [in Cairo] and other cities of the country, I chanted at the top of my voice: ‘Good life, freedom and justice'," he adds.

But more than 14 months after Mubarak's toppling, Al Mahlawi says nothing has been achieved to "do justice" to the country's workers. "In the past few months, we have held many demonstrations to demand [that] the government improve our living conditions. What we have got are mere promises, which are not enough to feed our children and pay house rents. Why was the revolution for then?"

Since Mubarak was forced to step down in February last year, Egypt has been gripped by labour strikes for better wages. At least 120 protests, including 100 by government and private sector employees, were staged in the first half of April, according to the Egyptian Centre for Economic Rights, a non-governmental group.

Runaway deficit

Factory workers took the lead with 32 protests, followed by civil servants with 18 protests, said the centre in a report. It added that the key demands were to increase wages, cash overdue pay, appoint casual workers and sack allegedly corrupt bosses. While acknowledging the "legitimacy of these demands", the army-backed government has said it is difficult for the public budget to respond to them at present due to a runaway public budget deficit and an economic contraction caused by political and street turmoil that followed the anti-Mubarak revolt.

In a bid to allay the workers' anger, Prime Minister Kamal Al Ganzouri met with trade union leaders last week. "We presented a list of our demands to Dr Al Ganzouri," said Ahmad Abdul Zaher, the head of the Egyptian General Trade Unions Federation. Abdul Zaher explained that the demands include increasing the minimum wage to 700 Egyptian pounds (Dh424) per month for governmental and public sector employees, negotiating with private sector employers for a "rewarding, minimum wage", and ordering a special pay rise starting from July to help workers and pensioners cope with spiralling living costs.

Main demands

Independent trade unions are pushing for wider demands. According to a statement that was to be circulated during protests coinciding with May Day, they are seeking benefits for the jobless, creation of new jobs, expansion of health care insurance, and the revoking of a law issued months after the anti-Mubarak uprising that criminalises strikes, besides the the halting of workers' trials before military courts.

According to Ahmad Heshmet, a rights activist, the workers were the ones who started the revolution against the Mubarak regime when they held a major strike in the Nile industrial town of Al Mahla Al Koubra in April 2008. "Workers represent the backbone of the production process in Egypt," said Heshmet, a legal adviser at the Hesham Mubarak for Law, a non-governmental organisation. "How can they be allowed to continue to suffer after the revolution?"

Major trade unions and pro-worker groups had outlined plans for a mass protest on May Day outside the parliament and government offices in central Cairo to press for their demands.