Int'l labor unions petition Egypt to release jailed unionists

Ahram Online 
International trade union groups write to Sisi demanding release of 8 Egyptian union members

Monday September 25, 2017 

Two international trade union confederations sent an open letter on Sunday to Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and Prime Minister Sherif Ismail calling for the release of several Egyptian union members detained in the past week.

The letter was signed by the general secretaries of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and Public Services International (PSI), which represents 669 public services unions in 154 countries.

The letter was also sent to Egypt's Center for Trade Unions and Workers Services (CTUWS), which provided a copy to Ahram Online.

"We are deeply concerned about the unprecedented and unjustified escalation of retaliation against independent trade unionists over recent days, and we demand their immediate and unconditional release," the letter reads.

According to news reports, eight members of Egyptian independent trades unions were arrested last week following union training events and attempts to organize protest actions.

Two of those detained work for the Egyptian Electricity Holding Company, while another four are employed at the Real Estate Taxes Authority (RETA), including the president of RETA's independent union. Finally, two workers with the Public Taxes Authority were also detained.

All those detained were apparently members of independent trades unions, the legality of which is still a matter of dispute in Egypt.

The taxation union members were arrested after several tax workers applied to the interior ministry for permission to hold a protest demanding pay rises. Egyptian law requires all protests to be authorized by the ministry before going ahead.

The members of the electricity union, meanwhile, were arrested after providing training to members of syndicates representing government administrative workers.

The detainees are facing a range of charges, including inciting strikes and demonstrations, misuse of social media and affiliation to a group banned by law.

"The blocking of a legitimate sit-in and strike action, as well as the arrest of trade unionists on security and anti-terrorism grounds, are a violation of the principle of freedom of association enshrined in the constitution and ILO convention 87," the letter said.

The Egyptian government introduced a law in 2013 that severely restricts protests and strikes, requiring prior notice from the interior ministry, which is rarely given. Thousands have been jailed for violating the law, including workers.

However, in December the Supreme Constitutional Court ruled that Article 10 of the 25-article law was unconstitutional.

In April, the parliament approved an amendment to the protest law, according to which authorities have no right to prohibit protests once all documents have been submitted, except through a court order.

According to the annual report of the Egyptian Center for Social and Economic Rights, issued in December, the governmental sector witnessed almost 478 “industrial actions” during 2016, while the public sector saw 133 actions and the private sector witnessed 107 actions.

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*UPDATE: Following domestic and international efforts, along with global solidarity campaigns - the aforementioned jailed workers and unionists were all released on October 17.

 

ITUC demands that Egypt ensures full investigation into Giulio Regeni's murder

International Trade Union Confederation
Egypt: Justice for Murdered Researcher Giulio Regeni

The ITUC has called on Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to ensure a full investigation into the murder of PhD student Giulio Regeni in Cairo 

January 24, 2017

Twenty-eight-year-old Regeni, a student at Cambridge University researching Egypt’s independent trade union movement, was brutally tortured and murdered on 25 January.

Sharan Burrow, ITUC General Secretary, said, “This atrocity, against an innocent young researcher, must be fully investigated and the perpetrators brought to justice. The heavy-handed tactics of Egypt’s police, the string of disappearances in recent months and the mounting repression of civil society show that President Sisi’s government is heading in the wrong direction.

The prospects for fundamental democratic rights and freedoms, including the right to freedom of association for the country’s workers, are receding by the day. We call upon the government to change course, to support and protect human rights and avoid yet more bloodshed and the possibility of further mass unrest.”

Egypt's 2nd Independent Labor Union Federation is Launched

Ahram Online

Egyptian Democratic Labour Congress officially launches

Thursday 25 Apr 2013 

Following months of groundwork, Egyptian Democratic Labour Congress (EDLC) officially launches, bringing together 300 independent trade unions from across the country 

Ayat Al-Tawy

The Egyptian Democratic Labour Congress (EDLC) was officially launched as an independent labour federation on Wednesday.

During a press conference at the Journalists' Syndicate in downtown Cairo, hundreds of workers from across the country, representatives of independent trade unions, political parties and NGOs gathered to announce the birth of the "long sought-after" body.

The launch also saw a big turnout of international labour organisations, including representatives from the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) – the world's largest trade union federation, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF), as well representatives of trade unions from across European and Arab countries.

Present at the conference was Kamal Abu-Ayta, president of the Egyptian Federation of Independent Trade Unions (EFITU).

"Both unions [the EFITU and the EDLC] represent the democratic labour movement," Abu-Ayta said.

"Our goal is to attain the freedom to form unions."

The fundamental demands of Egyptian workers are, he said, a 'trade union freedom' law, the reinstatement of thousands of laid-off workers, the renationalisation of privatised companies, and a minimum and maximum wage.

The EDLC, which brings together 300 independent trade unions from across Egypt, was originally established in October 2011 as a broad labour coalition that sought to build a democratic independent trade union federation.

Since the 2011 revolt that unseated autocratic president Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian labour movement has made headway in challenging the stranglehold of the state-sponsored Egyptian Trade Union Federation (ETUF) by forming independent unions and federations.

Independent of the ETUF, the Egyptian Democratic Labour Congress and the Egyptian Federation of Independent Trade Unions (EFITU) are the country's largest autonomous labour organisations.

"Workers want a government that respects them and creates jobs, respectful jobs," said Jaap Wienen, deputy general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation."Economies without respected workers cannot grow."

Wienen expressed solidarity with Egyptian workers and offered the EDLC association with the world's largest trade union confederation.

"Your government still does not understand that workers have the right to form their own trade union," he added. "We only see all these matters of not recognizing independent bodies in dictatorships, not democracies."

Since the 2011 uprising, labour action has been on the rise with strikes and protests to demand better pay and the elimination of widespread corruption across state institutions.

President Morsi's government has been accused of continuing the Mubarak regime's policy of stifling labour dissidence and opposing trade union freedom. Since Morsi assumed office, an increasing number of attacks on trade union activists have occurred, either through smear campaigns, the sacking of trade union leaders or even jail sentences for strike leaders.

In September 2012, union leaders at the Alexandria Port Containers Company were sentenced to three years in jail for leading a strike in October 2011.

Egypt's Unfinished Labor Revolution

In These Times
Egypt's Unfinished Labor Revolution

Friday - August 24, 2012

Eric Lee

More than 20 years before the fall of the Mubarak regime, some Egyptians were already in revolt. In 1989, 17,000 steel workers in Helwan staged an "illegal" strike. One of the young rebels, Kamal Abbas, a welder at a large steelworks south of Cairo, was arrested as a ringleader and jailed for 45 days.

Thanks to the strike, the workers in Helwan eventually saw pay increases. For Abbas, it was the beginning of a long career leading workers in struggles against the official state unions controlled by the Mubarak regime. Abbas headed the Center for Trade Union and Workers Services (CTUWS), founded just after that strike, which for years maintained a precarious existence--sometimes tolerated, sometimes banned by the government.

During that two decade struggle, Abbas and the CTUWS were a thorn in the side of the state-controlled unions, which fall under the umbrella of the Egyptian Trade Union Federation (ETUF). As the Mubarak government pursued its neoliberal agenda of privatizations, the ETUF's role was to discipline the workforce to ensure industrial peace during a time of change. (Later, when the Mubarak regime was tottering, it was the ETUF's thugs that Mubarak supporters called in to Tahrir Square to try to break up the protests.)

In 2010, Abbas and the CTUWS were recognized by the AFL-CIO and given the organization's prestigious annual George Meany-Lane Kirkland Human Rights Award at a ceremony in Cairo. I attended the event, one of a few international guests at a CTUWS conference that we were warned could be broken up at any moment by the police. It was a time of increasing labor unrest in Egypt, involving not only strikes in giant, sprawling factories but also huge street protests and sit-ins.

The collapse of the Mubarak regime in 2011 did not bring an end to the ETUF. Among other things, its leaders continued to go on expensive overseas junkets, including participating in the annual International Labor Conference in Geneva.

Abbas, too, attended the Geneva conference, as the invited guest of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). When Ismael Fahmy, a Mubarak loyalist still holding down a job as an ETUF leader, came onstage to give an address, Abbas heckled him from the crowd.

It was a minor incident, hardly worthy of note, except that several months later a court in Cairo convicted Abbas in absentia of "insulting a public officer." Abbas was sentenced to six months in prison. He is currently free as his lawyers appeal the decision.

The case of Kamal Abbas tells us much about what has been happening in Egypt--and what needs to happen next.

When I interviewed Abbas in London last year, he said, "The Egyptian revolution succeeded in removing the dictatorship, but we are only halfway to a democratic state and in transition to building independent unions, which are a basis of a more socially just and democratic system."

Independent, democratic trade unions, free of state control, are at the heart of Abbas' vision for Egypt, and this remains as true today as it was under the Mubarak regime. The international trade union movement understands this. Earlier this year, the ITUC launched a global campaign demanding an end to the persecution of Abbas, run through the LabourStart website (which I edit).

Meanwhile, the courts continue to delay ruling on Abbas' appeal.

International union federations vie for Egypt’s workers

Al-Masry Al-Youm
International union federations vie for Egypt’s workers

July 27, 2011

Maggie Hyde


The recently liberated Egyptian labor movement is being courted by international union federations looking for inroads into one of the world’s largest worker populations.

The federations see the country as fertile ground to spread the message of worker’s rights. Labor activists estimate that over 150 independent unions have been established in recent months.

In interviews with Al-Masry Al-Youm English Edition, representatives from the world’s two largest federations expressed their desire to bring Egypt’s unions on board.

“Right now, we are expressing our support and solidarity with Egyptian workers,” said Alexandra Liberi, a representative from the Athens-based World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), on a recent trip to Cairo.

She said the group was in dialogue with both the newly formed unions that are cropping up, as well as the state-sanctioned Egyptian Trade Union Federation (ETUF), which has long been controlled by members of former President Hosni Mubarak’s ruling party.

“We’re talking with all forces, all sides,” she said. “We need to have a clear picture of the situation.”

Under Mubarak, workers were only allowed to organize through the ETUF, a non-democratic body that was largely seen as a trapping to maintain appearances with the West. It was illegal for workers to associate in any other way. Despite its being largely viewed among labor activists as being too tainted by its previous policies to continue after Mubarak’s fall, the union has yet to be fully dissolved.

Liberi’s federation had a relationship with ETUF, but she said the group has also cultivated ties among the emerging independent unions, which she also consulted during her visit.

In May, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), based in Belgium, opened an office in Cairo, ending the organization’s years-long boycott of the country because of the government’s attempt to control union activity. The ITUC had repeatedly turned down the ETUF’s application to join the confederation, and repeatedly asked the government to give workers the right of association.

When Mubarak fell, the ITUC decided to establish a permanent presence here. They immediately began talks with the Center for Trade Union and Workers’ Services, an NGO that advocates for workers rights, and four independent unions.

“We are keen to have an affiliate in Egypt,” said Mustapha Saeed, representative for the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), sitting in the confederation’s new office on Qasr al-Aini Street.

To join the confederation, a union must fit the criteria of being independent and democratic. Admitting the ETUF, said Saeed, which was an arm of the Egyptian government, was out of the question.

International union federations, the two largest being the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), are international bodies that hold congresses to unite worker’s movements and unions around the world.

Both groups say that their foremost goal is to provide “solidarity and support” for workers across the globe. Both function like unions on an international scale, with groups petitioning for membership and paying dues.

Though they have similar missions, the two groups are ideologically divided.

The WFTU is largely associated with the former Eastern Bloc countries and its alliances with communist governments; the ITUC has the reputation of working with capitalist systems in Western countries. Today, the WFTU has members in Sudan, Iran and North Korea, while the ITUC’s members are in freer, Western societies.

The two parties have an ideological split dating back before the Cold War, when many of the Western members left the Federation over a disagreement about the group’s support for US funding and economic interference to Eastern Europe after the fall of communism. The WFTU emerged, composed of mostly communist states, and the ITUC became the confederation for the European and American unions.

Since then, the WFTU has taken a strong stance against capitalism while the ITUC has a less stringent position, cultivating a relationship with the World Bank and the IMF.

There remains some bad blood. Liberi accused the ITUC of being a pawn of Western governments, and of paying money to unions to convince them to join.

“We do not use money to buy out trade unions,” she said.

Saeed said the accusation was completely unfounded, and that there were no real ill feelings, just some differences in philosophy. The ITUC, he said, is funded by dues from all its members, which are then redistributed according to activities and need.

“We are not competing,” said Saeed. “I have nothing against them.”

In Egypt, both representatives said their primary aim was to help Egyptian workers secure the right to organize, then to advise them on how to coordinate.

According to Saeed, there is a lot of work to be done, including providing stable, decent jobs with health insurance and pensions and a fair wage to Egypt’s workers.

“All of these problems can be solved by a strong union,” he said. “But we do not even have a class consciousness of workers yet. “

Neither could predict what an established, formal, and independent Egypt labor movement will look like, but both representatives said they were optimistic that Egypt’s labor movement, once organized, could wield great political and economic influence.

“When a working class realizes its power, it will be unstoppable,” said Liberi. “That’s why we will strengthen the labor movement.”

Annual Survey of Labor Union Rights Worldwide

INTERNATIONAL TRADE UNION CONFEDERATION
ITUC: 2010 Annual Survey of Trade Union Rights

Since 2008, the global financial and economic crisis has had a massive impact throughout the world on the level of employment. Tens of millions of jobs have been lost, and many millions more workers are still feeling the threat of unemployment. This in turn has made the central task of trade unions, defence and promotion of workers’ rights and decent jobs for all, even more difficult than at any time in recent history. Indeed, in many countries, despite a call by G20 leaders, public authorities and companies have continued to use the crisis as a pretext to weaken and undermine trade union rights.

The ITUC is adamant that the struggle for the universal respect of trade union rights enshrined in the ILO fundamental conventions is needed more than ever before. The ITUC Founding Congress in 2006 mandated the organisation to expose and denounce violations of workers’ rights, wherever they occur. The publication of this Survey is an important part of fulfilling that mandate.

This Survey again records an extensive list of violations suffered by trade unionists struggling to defend workers’ interests, this year in 140 countries. Other violations remain unreported, as working women and men are deprived of the means to have their voices heard, or fear to speak out due to the consequences to their jobs or even to their physical safety. The Survey provides detailed documentation of harassment, intimidation, persecution and, in the worst cases, murder of trade unionists. Killings of trade unionists actually increased by 30% compared to the previous year.

At least 101 trade unionists and labour activists were murdered in 2009 compared to 76 the previous year: 48 were killed in Colombia, 16 in Guatemala, 12 in Honduras, six in Mexico, six in Bangladesh, four in Brazil, three in the Dominican Republic, three in the Philippines, one in India, one in Iraq and one in Nigeria. Colombia was yet again the deadliest country in the world: 22 of the trade unionists who died were senior trade union leaders and five were women. The rise in violence in Guatemala and Honduras is deeply worrying.

A further ten attempted murders and 35 serious death threats are recorded, again mostly in Colombia and Guatemala. Furthermore, many trade unionists remained in prison and were joined by around hundred others in 2009. Many others were arrested in Iran, Honduras, Pakistan, South Korea, Turkey and Zimbabwe, in particular. The general trade union rights’ situation has continued to deteriorate in a number of countries, including Egypt, the Russian Federation, South Korea and Turkey.

Trade union rights continue to be infringed, in many cases with total impunity, and the repression of trade unionists goes on while governments fail to meet their responsibility to ensure that trade union rights are respected and that the people defending these rights are protected. In a number of countries, governments again showed that they are intent on keeping trade unions under their firm control.

Anti-democratic forces continued to target union activity, aware that unions are often in the front line in the defence of democracy. This was evident in Honduras during the post-coup violence and in Guinea during a protest demonstration against the ruling junta which turned into a terrible massacre on 28 September.

Numerous cases of strike-breaking and repression of striking workers were documented in each region. Thousands of workers demonstrating to claim wages, denounce harsh working conditions or the harmful effects of the global financial and economical crisis have faced beatings, arrest and detention, including in Algeria, Argentina, Belarus, Burma, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Honduras, India, Iran, Kenya, Nepal, Pakistan and Turkey. Dismissals of workers due to their trade union activities were reported in many countries. In Bangladesh, six garment workers on strike for a pay increase and settlement of outstanding wages died after a police intervention.

Union busting and pressure continue to be widely used by employers. In several countries, companies threatened workers with closure or transfer of production sites, should they organise or join a trade union. Often employers simply refused to negotiate with legitimate workers’ representatives while the authorities did nothing. Some labour codes were amended to permit more “flexibility” and to unravel social welfare systems which often impacted the existing industrial relations systems and thus curtailed trade union rights.

Another negative effect of the economic and financial crisis is that more and more workers are forced into various forms of precarious work. Indeed, the ILO now estimates that 50% of the global workforce is involved in vulnerable work. This affected workers in export processing zones, especially in South East Asia and Central America, domestic workers (especially in the Middle East and South East Asia), migrants as well as agricultural workers. It is worth mentioning that women represent a significant majority of the workforce in these sectors. Furthermore, the growth of informal employment and the development of new “atypical” forms of employment was seen across both regions and industrial sectors. The difficulties these workers face to organise or exercise their trade union rights are directly related to their highly vulnerable position in the labour market.

Where legislation protects some trade union rights, this often comes with restrictions. Fundamental rights remain restricted for many categories of workers, including public employees in several countries. Severe restrictions or outright prohibition of strikes also exists in a large number of countries. Furthermore, complex procedural requirements, imposition of compulsory arbitration and the use of excessively broad definitions of “essential services” provisions often make the exercise of trade union rights impossible in practice, depriving workers of their legitimate rights to union representation and participation in industrial action.

2009 was the 60th Anniversary of the ILO Convention on the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining, 1949 (no. 98). Countries such as Canada, China, India, Iran, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam have still not ratified it. Thus, approximately half of the world’s economically active population is not covered by the Convention. Even when ratified, implementation of this vital Convention is frequently weak. Respect for the rights to organise and bargain collectively are crucial to restoring purchasing power and economic growth around the world, and governments must act to ensure that these rights are respected in law and in practice. The alternative is greater inequality, and deeper recession.

The free exercise of fundamental trade union rights by independent trade unions is also essential to the functioning of a democratic society and to a global economy based on social justice. The ITUC will continue to fight for the protection of these rights, and bring support and solidarity to the men and women who risk their jobs, their freedom and even their lives to defend workers’ rights.

Solidarity with RETA Union from the International Trade Union Confederation

International Trade Union Confederation/ITUC
Interference in the Affairs of the Real Estate Tax Authority Union

Dear Mr. President,

The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC,) which represents 170 million workers through its 312 affiliates in 157 countries throughout the world, protests along with Public Service International (PSI,) the interference by the President of the Egyptian Trade Union Federation with independence and autonomy of the PSI affiliate Real Estate Tax Authority Union (RETA).

RETA was formally constituted in April 2009 in accordance with the Egyptian Constitution as well as international labour standards ratified by the Egyptian Government. A Social Care Fund, providing retirement benefits for its members was established and then approved by the Minister of Finance (Decree No. 425, in July 2009).

According to our information, since then considerable pressure has been exerted by Mr. Hussein Megawer, President of the Egyptian Trade Union Federation (ETUF), including officials in the Real Estate Tax Authority and Ministry of Finance, to withdraw the recognition of RETA as an independent trade union and to dissolve or seize control of the Social Care Fund. Those pressures include among others: physical assault of two RETA officials, intimidation of RETA members, arbitrary transfers of RETA leaders and public prosecution against the President of RETA, Mr. Kamal Abu Eita and against the decision of the Minister of Finance approving the establishment of RETA's Social Care Fund.

In December 2008, the ITUC had expressed its concerns when the RETA was experiencing difficulties while establishing the union. We strongly protest once again against interference with the free and independent functioning of the RETA. This interference is incompatible with the principle of freedom of association and therefore a violation of ILO Convention 87.

Along with PSI, the ITUC urges you to take swift measures to ensure that RETA can freely exercise its role as an independent trade union organisation; to condemn all acts of intimidation and harassment against the leadership and members of RETA and to condemn all external interference in RETA's activities.

Yours sincerely,
Guy Ryder
General Secretary

*August 20, 2009 - Addressed to Hosni Mubarak, President of the Arab Republic of Egypt; Copies sent to Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmad Nazif, and the Egyptian Embassy in Brussels

The Egyptian State's Violations of Trade Union Rights - ITUC Annual Survey

This is a very well conducted annual report on the part of the International Trade Union Confederation, it critiques the Egyptian State's historical and contemporary violations of trade union rights. Praiseworthy as this survey is, it is only a brief summary and thus merely covers the tip of the iceberg of state violations. Mention is not made regarding State Security's intervention in trade union affairs, enforced bargaining techniques, threats, along with physical abuse.

It should be mentioned that over 12,000 candidates were prevented from nominating themselves in the trade union elections of Nov. 2006 (for the ongoing 2006-2011 term) and during the vote-counting process ballot rigging was nearly the norm.

The countless violations of professional syndicates’ rights and the state’s intervention in their affairs warrant a whole separate report. This survey mentions only the “Judicial supervision imposed on many professionals' unions” it doesn’t go into detail about the state’s interventionist mechanisms of “judicial sequestration,” “judicial administration” and “administrative guardianship.”

The violations of professional syndicates’ rights and trade union rights, along with those of the rights of non-unionized workers, across Egypt are so numerous that they could fill the pages of several volumes of fat books.

The ITUC did some very good work here, nonetheless.

Down with the yellow state-controlled Egyptian Trade Union Federation
JC


*****

(EGYPT) ANNUAL SURVEY OF VIOLATIONS OF TRADE UNION RIGHTS, 2009 - ITUC

International Trade Union Confederation
ITUC Annual Survey of Violations of Trade Union Rights

ITUC launches scathing attack on Egypt

Almasryonline.com
Reported by Mahmoud Azuz in Geneva

The Secretary General of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) Guy Ryder, launched a harsh attack on the Egyptian authorities on the grounds of the continued use of Emergency Laws in Egypt.

Ryder said the while the government justifies the continued use of Emergency Law on the grounds that it is needed to combat terrorism, it is used by the state to combat all of its political and social opposition forces which have been stifled for the past 20 years.

In a report reviewed yesterday during the International Labor Conference, currently being held in Geneva (Switzerland), Ryder accused the Egyptian government, represented by the Ministry of Manpower and Immigration, of interfering in the affairs of workers and trade unions denying workers the right of association and the right to join the trade unions. He said Egyptian labor laws ban the participation of trade unions in political activities which contradicts principles of freedom and the rights of association.

He called on the government, employer organizations and companies to set a minimum wage suiting the increases in the prices of all commodities and services.

Rider also said it is impossible for workers to organize a strike in Egypt because of what he described as restrictions imposed by Egyptian laws on the right to go on strike.

He criticized the Prime Minister's right to ban strikes in strategic sectors.

He pointed out that labor dispute resolution committees in Egypt do not carry out their role, saying for example they issued rulings on just almost 10% of the more than 250,000 complaints they received in 2005.

He affirmed that exempting export economic zones from complying with the legal provisions on work regulation deprived workers of their right to form trade unions committees defending them. He explained that in spite of the government's control and supervision on the negotiations and collective agreements in the private sector, many businessmen and representatives of companies do not respect the government's decisions on workers and the requirements concerning minimum wage, social security and other issues.

The ITUC Secretary General criticized the State for imposing judicial oversight on professional trade unions (engineers, doctors and pharmacists) although there are independent candidates who have won the elections in these trade unions in previous years.

http://www.almasryonline.com/portal/page/portal/MasryPortal/ARTICLE_EN?itId=UG89939&pId=UG14&pType=1