Egypt's newest trade union was established on Thursday; the Independent Union of Public Transport Authority Workers. Hundreds of PTA workers attended the inauguration and preparatory conference of their independent trade union - at the Journalists' Syndicate.
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Joining this union are 60,000 bus-drivers, conductors, mechanics, and engineers employed in the PTA - from across greater Cairo. Tens of thousands have rallied for the establishment of representative, accountable and democratically-elected trade union committees.
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Workers voted to break away from the General Union of Land Transport Workers, a yellow union within the (state-controlled) Egyptian Trade Union Federation. This new union is the fifth independent association to be established since 1957.
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Over the course of the past two years five independent unions came into being:
The Real Estate Tax Authority Employees' Union,
The Independent Teachers' Syndicate,
Egyptian Health Technologists' Syndicate,
Pensioners' Federation;
And today the Independent Union of the Public Transport Authority Workers.
The Egyptian Federation of Independent Trade Unions (EFITU) - a confederation of the first four associations - was established on January 30th.
2 comments:
Interesting report. How would one contact these brothers and sisters?
Dear Jano Charbel, i would like to come in contact with you, for some questions i have, because i write an article about situation and struggle of workers in egypt for the "Direkte Aktion", paper of the Free Workers Union (FAU) in Germany.
thanks and solidarity, Tom
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