Labor Day 2016: Sisi addresses nation from luxury hotel, as industrial actions increase nationwide

Mada Masr
Labor Day 2016: Sisi addresses nation from hotel, workers air grievances

Sunday, May 1, 2016 - 13:57

Jano Charbel

 

Over the past three years parades and street rallies for Labor Day have not been permitted in Egypt, and this year too the events have been subdued and held indoors.

An official state celebration was held on April 28 in eastern Cairo, at the Armed Forces’ luxury Al-Masah Hotel, and a smaller commemoration by independent labor organizations is scheduled for the evening of May 1 at the Journalists’ Syndicate in downtown Cairo.

At Al-Masah Hotel, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi delivered his first televised Labor Day speech to the nation, surrounded by ministers, top generals and leading members of the state-run Egyptian Trade Union Federation (ETUF.)

Last year, Sisi broke with a decades-long presidential tradition of addressing the nation on Labor Day. He commemorated Labor Day at the Police Academy in New Cairo with a select group of workers in lieu of a televised address.

This year, Labor Day comes amid a backdrop of new austerity measures, increased costs of living, faltering industries, a devastated tourism sector, unemployment growing to (officially) nearly 13 percent, and increasing countrywide labor unrest with hundreds of industrial protests and strikes.
Independent trade unions continue to decline and a concerted crackdown on them persists.

Many independent unionists and workers’ rights activists have expressed pessimism regarding the future of Egypt’s labor movement, but Sisi sounded optimistic about how labor relations will develop during his rule.

 
Delivered from a stage covered with the ETUF logo, Sisi’s scripted speech praised Egypt’s workforce of over 28.4 million with patriotic rhetoric and called on workers to “double your efforts.”
“Increased production means increased incomes,” he said.

Like former President Hosni Mubarak in his Labor Day speeches, Sisi emphasized the state’s concern for low-income earners. He did not discuss the austerity measures introduced in 2014, which are said to have impacted millions of low-income families.

“I kindly ask him to actually visit factories and other workplaces, in order to come into contact with real workers and hear their grievances," Kamal al-Fayoumi, a worker leader from the public-sector Misr Spinning and Weaving Company in Mahalla, tells Mada Masr of Sisi's speech. "Otherwise he just hears the applause and empty talk of ETUF representatives, which does not reflect the reality of our situation.”

Fayoumi spells out his Labor Day aspirations and concerns: “We want wages to increase in line with prices. Our utility bills are increasing exponentially, prices of basic consumer goods are sky-rocketing, while wages stagnate. Real wages are declining, and this will likely contribute to more labor unrest across Egypt.”

Not all workers in public-sector enterprises, let alone private sector workers, are eligible for so-called monthly minimum wage of LE1200 (currently equivalent to $US135), which was introduced in 2014.

Sisi’s speech warned against labor protests, stressing “the importance of promoting dialogue and collective bargaining between both sides of the productive process, to realize amicable resolutions, and to decrease labor protests, which negatively affect production.”

“Who’s going to represent me in this collective bargaining?” asks Seoud Omar, a Suez Canal Authority employee and labor organizer in Suez City. “How are workers supposed to confront exploitation, corruption, mismanagement and poor working conditions when ETUF has failed to over several decades?”

Omar says the ETUF has a membership of nearly 4 million — less than 15 percent of the national workforce — and thus is only capable of bargaining on behalf of a minority of workers. Egypt’s independent trade unions claim a membership of only a few hundred thousand, and have even weaker bargaining powers.

“The ETUF leadership seeks to outlaw independent unions under the pretext that they instigate labor protests and strikes,” points out Omar.

In 2015, 1,117 strikes and other industrial actions were reported across Egypt, according to Egyptian NGO Democracy Meter — an average of three labor protests for each day of the year. As for 2016, it says that, “Between January and April of this year there have been a total of 493 labor protests (including strikes, marches, rallies, occupations, etc.)

This currently represents an average of six industrial actions each day, and a 25 percent increase in such labor unrest in comparison to the same period last year.”

Most of these actions (144) took place in Greater Cairo, followed by the Nile Delta governorates (110), the Suez Canal governorates (63) and Alexandria (60.) Upper Egypt and other governorates witnessed the rest.

These industrial actions affect both unionized and non-unionized workplaces, and include independent unionists and ETUF members alike – although ETUF has officially authorized only two strikes since its establishment in 1957.

“ETUF ignores the national Constitution of 2014 regarding the right to strike (Article 15) and freely establish unions (Article 76),” Omar says, “Just as they ignore international workers’ rights conventions that Egypt ratified decades ago, including the International Labor Organization’s conventions.”

A lawsuit ETUF filed before the Administrative Court demanding the dissolution of independent unions and federations commenced in February and its verdict is scheduled for June 26.

A recently issued ILO statement expressed “concern over threats to human and trade union rights in Egypt” under Sisi. It also cited “the responsibility of the government to ensure the application of international labor conventions on freedom of association that it has freely ratified.”

Egypt has ratified ILO conventions on freedom of association (Convention 87) and the right to organize (Convention 98) since the 1950s, but has not upheld their provisions.

According to domestic trade union legislation, ETUF has been Egypt’s only legally-recognized labor federation since its establishment nearly 60 years ago. It maintained its monopoly until the 2011 uprising against Mubarak, when independent trade union federations emerged to challenge it.

In his Labor Day address, Sisi said the new parliament “will formulate the legislation needed to create an encouraging atmosphere for the process of production, by discussing and issuing the relevant laws, at the forefront of which are the (new) Labor Law and Trade Union Law.”

In an interview posted on ETUF’s website on April 28, newly-appointed Manpower Minister Mohamed Saafan — a leading ETUF member — says his ministry “is adding its finishing touches to the draft laws on labor and trade unions.”

The ministry’s draft laws are to be sent to parliament for review, specifically to the parliamentary Manpower Committee, which is presided over by ETUF chief Gebali al-Maraghi and other members of the state-run federation.

Building on the April ILO statement on Egypt, on April 30 Human Rights Watch called on Egypt to "unshackle workers' right to organize," saying the draft Trade Union Law being prepared should guarantee unions’ independence.

In an interview with the state-owned Al-Akhbar newspaper on May 1, Saafan argues that “there is no such thing as independent unions, only parallel organizations. Each one of these organizations has specific objectives, and the last of their concerns are labor rights.”

“Little by little the truth behind this regime’s policies are being exposed,” says Omar, “and workers are realizing that the government and ETUF have no real intention of negotiating with other labor groupings — be they independent unions, federations or independent-minded workers. The regime wants to listen only to its yes-men. It is siding with its own interests and protecting its own privileges.”

As for the May 1 event scheduled to take place at the Journalists’ Syndicate, dubbed “United for Union Freedoms,” it aims to address the grievances of independent unions and discuss their proposed amendments to the extant trade union and labor laws.

“These new laws are unlikely to add any provisions protecting labor rights or freedoms,” says Talal Shokr, an organizer of this event and member of the Independent Pensioners’ Union. “They are likely to maintain the status quo of unbalanced labor relations which existed under Mubarak. Perhaps they will serve to tilt them even further in favor of investors’ interests.”

Concluding his Labor Day speech, Sisi announced he is pledging LE100 million from the publicly-financed Tahya Masr (Long Live Egypt) fund to the Ministry of Manpower’s emergency funds for stalled and faltering industries — particularly the tourism industry. Tourism has been badly affected since the fatal downing of a Russian passenger plane over Sinai in late October, in what is widely believed to be a terrorist act.


*Screenshots courtesy of ONTV

Egyptian State won't give Italy phone records in slain student case

Associated Press

Egypt won't give Italy phone records in slain student case

 

April 9, 2016

 

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt has rejected an Italian request to hand over the phone records of mobile subscribers in the Cairo district where an Italian doctoral student resided before being abducted, tortured and killed, a senior Egyptian official said Saturday.

Senior prosecutor Mustafa Suleiman addressed a news conference a day after Italy recalled its ambassador to protest what it described as a lack of cooperation in the investigation of the killing of Giulio Regeni, whose body was found nine days after he disappeared, bearing signs of torture.

Suleiman said Egypt rejected the request because it violated Egyptian laws and the constitution. He said the Italians told an Egyptian delegation visiting Rome this week that the continuation of cooperation between the two nations over the case hinged on meeting their request for the records, which include those of subscribers in the Cairo suburb where Regeni's body was found Feb. 3.

"Egypt rejected the request, not because it wanted to be intransigent or to conceal, but rather out of respect for the law and the Egyptian constitution," Suleiman said. "That request violates the law and the constitution and whoever meets it will have committed a crime."

Suleiman said the Italians repeated the request on the second and final day of the talks in Rome. "The Egyptian delegation reasserted its uncompromising rejection," he said.

Regeni, who was in Egypt to research labor movements, went missing on Jan. 25, the fifth anniversary of the 2011 uprising, when police were out in force to prevent demonstrations, leading to speculation that Egyptian security forces were behind his abduction and death. The Interior Ministry has denied any involvement.

The Egyptian government has suggested several alternative scenarios. It recently claimed that security forces had killed members of a kidnapping gang in a raid and circulated photos of Regeni's ID cards it said had been found at the scene. That explanation was widely dismissed, including in the Italian media, which has closely followed the case.

Suleiman also said Egyptian investigators could not meet an Italian request for video footage from security cameras at the metro station nearest to Regeni's Cairo apartment, saying the recently installed cameras automatically erased footage. He said the U.S. manufacturers informed the Egyptian investigators that it was not possible to retrieve the erased footage. A German company approached by the Egyptians said retrieval had a 50/50 chance of success but that the procedure was costly.

"We met 98 percent of all the requests made by the Italians," Suleiman said. The Italians, meanwhile, provided the Egyptians with only a small number of more than 500,000 files stored in Regeni's laptop computer, he added. The two sides, however, left on good terms, he said.

"Judicial cooperation between Egypt and Italy is positive and Italy is one of the best countries that deals with Egypt when it comes to judicial matters," he said the start of the news conference. "We are eager to continue this cooperation."

He refused to be drawn into commenting on media reports on the case, saying only that anyone who has a "confirmed and documented" piece of evidence should come forward and submit it to the Egyptian investigators.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said on Tuesday his country deeply regretted Regeni's death and intended to "transparently" continue its "full cooperation" with Italy to resolve the case and bring the culprits to justice.

El-Sissi and Italian Premier Matteo Renzi have forged close ties since the Egyptian leader came to office in June 2014. Italy is Egypt's biggest EU trading partner and the two countries have been coordinating policies on Libya, Egypt's neighbor and Italy's former colony, where the extremist Islamic State group has a local affiliate.

Renzi told reporters on Friday that the decision to recall the Italian ambassador in Egypt was made "immediately" after Italian prosecutors gave their assessment of two days of meetings with the Egyptians that they had hoped would deliver useful evidence.

"Italy, as you know, made a commitment to the family of Giulio Regeni naturally, to the memory of Giulio Regeni, but also to the dignity of all us, saying we'd only stop in front of the truth," Renzi said.

Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Saturday that Italy will study other steps to take if the truth about Regeni's slaying doesn't come out, without elaborating.

Gentiloni recalled that he has said "we will adopt immediate and proportional measures," the Italian news agency ANSA reported from Tokyo, where he was participating in a G-7 ministers' meeting. "We committed ourselves to doing this, and we will do this."

Last week, Regeni's parents urged the Italian government to declare Egypt "unsafe" for Italians to visit, saying their son was only one of many torture victims in the Arab nation. Egypt's Red Sea resorts have for years been a popular destination for hundreds of thousands of Italians who visited Egypt annually.

Strikes & labor protests hit state-owned companies

Mada Masr 

Strikes and labor protests hit state-owned companies  

Companies affected include petroleum and coke-fuel plants, gas billing services, and Nile cruise ships

Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Jano Charbel 

Thousands of workers at state-owned companies have been embarking on strikes and other industrial actions this week in protest at low wages and bonuses, and in demand of parity with their co-workers in other company branches.

Among those taking part in industrial actions are Nile dockworkers in Aswan, employees of the Petrotrade Company in several governorates, petroleum workers in Suez, and workers at the Nasr Coke Company in Cairo.

Petroleum workers demand contractual agreement

As of Monday, thousands of employees of Petrotrade – a state-owned petroleum services and billing company – have been on strike for the past 25 days. Thousands of striking employees of Petrotrade have been demanding the implementation of a company-wide contractual agreement established since 2011 – to which few are apparently entitled.

Strikes among Petrotrade employees broke out in Cairo nearly five years ago, and have spilled-over to other company branches nationwide.

Employees have been demanding the application of the 2011 employment contract – which would help raise their salaries, bonuses, and benefits – along with the reinstatement of 25 sacked workers/unionists, and the accountability of administrators, who they claim are involved in acts of corruption.

Strike coordinator, Karim Reda, told Mada Masr that of the company’s 56 branches nationwide, around 52 are on strike. Reda added that the company employs around 18,000 workers across the country – of which approximately 16,000 are on strike.

Reda stated that “only a couple of branches in Cairo and in North Sinai are not partaking in this strike.”

According to company administrators, this nearly month-long strike has resulted in losses for Petrotrade amounting to over LE80 million.

However, Reda explained that striking workers can compensate Petrotrade for these losses. “We can collect overdue bills at a later point in time, when our demands are met. But we are also willing to carry on with our strikes for another week, month, or however long it takes.”

According to Reda: “Company administrators claim that our strikes are being led by the Muslim Brotherhood and April 6^th Youth Movement. They claim that opposition political forces are instigating these industrial actions, but we are not politicized. We are just ordinary employees with professional demands.”

Indeed, photos posted on the website of the privately-owned Al-Wafd news portal – from several Petrotrade branches – even reveal workers carrying posters of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and respectfully asking for his intervention.

Reda added that Petrotrade employees are demanding parity with other employees and administrators who are employed under the work contracts of 2011. “For the past five years, the company’s administration keep dragging its feet regarding the implementation of the 2011 employment contracts. Only a few chief administrators and allied employees who tow the line are currently employed according to the collective agreement of 2011.

Reda reported that Petrotrade administrators are involved in corruption and the misappropriation of the company’s funds. “Administrators decree the disbursement of large salaries, and periodic bonuses amongst themselves; and likewise for those employees who are their obedient followers.”

The strike coordinator added that administrators have filed complaints at local police stations against some 150 striking employees nationwide – citing their obstruction of official public sector work.

Reda added that a complaint has been filed against him at al-Daher Police Station in Cairo.

Nile and Suez Canal workers seek parity, contractual changes

Meanwhile, on Monday, nearly 100 maintenance and dockworkers in the district of Armant – in the southernmost governorate of Aswan – commenced a strike at the Canal Company for Nile Services and Maintenance Works.

The privately-owned Youm7 news portal reported that these workers are demanding parity with their co-workers in the Suez Canal Authority (which oversees the Canal Company for Nile Services) in terms of their wages, benefits, bonuses and allowances.

The strike in Armant’s Nile docks has reportedly halted all repairs and maintenance work on cruise boats, and floating hotels. These striking workers are also reported to have filed an official complaint at the Armant Police Station, demanding an audience with the administrators of the Suez Canal Authority.

Likewise, last month several hundred workers employed at seven subsidiary maritime companies of the Suez Canal Authority embarked on protests and partial strikes – demanding parity with their co-workers who are directly employed by this state-owned maritime transport authority.

These seven subsidiary companies (involved in maintenance, transport, roping, etc.) are administratively – but not financially – managed by this state authority.

These hundreds of workers along the Suez Canal have largely suspended their industrial actions after receiving official pledges that their demands would be heeded.

Elsewhere, around 100 workers at the Suez Petroleum Production Company reportedly protested outside their company’s headquarters, demanding contractual changes.

The private Al-Masry Al-Youm portal reported that these workers are demanding that the duration of their service at the Suez Petroleum Production Company be calculated from the dates upon which they started their employment – not from the dates of the signing of new contracts.

Workers from this state-owned company told Al-Masry Al-Youm that their wages and bonuses would negatively be affected if the duration of their employment – under their initial contracts – are not included as part of their total number of years of service.

Coke workers suspect strike action

Finally, workers at the Nasr Coke Company – for the production of coke/coal fuel – in Cairo’s south-eastern industrial district of Tibeen, suspended their strike action on Monday.

After six days of strike action, approximately 2,300 workers at the Nasr Coke Company reportedly called-off their work stoppage for a duration of one week so as to allow state authorities an opportunity to meet their demands.

According to the privately-owned Al-Watan news portal, the demands include: payment of overdue profit-shares; the detailed publication of the company’s financial accounts for the year 2015; the accountability of company officials for any acts of corruption or mismanagement, along with the dismissal of the chief of the Holding Company for Mining and Mineral Industries – which oversees the Nasr Coke Company.

The coke workers are reported to have suspended their strike action after having met with representatives from the Office of the Presidency, and from the Armed Forces, who pledged to look into their demands.

The coke industry is of great importance to other state-owned companies – such as the mammoth Egyptian Steel and Iron Company, and other steel mills, located in the adjacent district of Helwan – which use this coke to fuel their furnaces.


*Photo by Jano Charbel

Egypt: Labor Unrest from North to South

Mada Masr
Labor unrest from north to south

As 2015 draws to a close, worker protests are building momentum across the country

Saturday, December 19, 2015 

 

Jano Charbel

 

 

Thousands of workers across the country are protesting against what they call unjust employment practices, and an associated spate of industrial actions has picked up steam in recent weeks.

Protests have been concentrated at the Suez Canal Authority, at hotels and resorts in the Red Sea town of Sharm el-Sheikh, the Shebin al-Kom Textiles Company in Monufiya, across several governorates in the branches of the state-owned Petrotrade Company, and a fertilizer company in the Upper Egyptian City of Assiut.

In Suez, 2,000 workers employed by companies affiliated with the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) have been holding sit-in protests and partial strikes for close to two weeks.

Labor protests have been ongoing since December 8 at six out of the seven subsidiary companies that are administratively — but not financially — managed by the SCA. These subsidiary maritime companies offer the SCA services including maintenance, transport, roping and docking.

Workers have staged partial strikes and sit-ins to protest low wages and insufficient bonuses, demanding parity with employees directly employed by the SCA.

“There are clear discrepancies between working conditions and incomes at the SCA and those of the seven affiliated companies,” argues Seoud Omar, a fulltime SCA employee living in Suez City. “There are even discrepancies among these seven companies — some generate profits, while others incur losses. This translates into several different pay-scales for employees along the Suez Canal.”

Omar says he stands in solidarity with workers protesting in Suez and the rest of the nation, but “parity remains a difficult goal to realize for all these workers in these different companies.”

SCA officials are currently in negotiations with the strikers and protesting workers in the hopes of reaching a settlement. Trade union organizer Galal al-Gizawy, who works for the Canal Port Company in Ismailia City, hopes the negotiations will take into consideration the concerns and demands of the subsidiary company employees, such as a unified pay-scale.

“We are seeking to suspend the strikes and protests,” he explains, "but we are also demanding complete parity with our fellow employees at the SCA.”

Senior employees at the subsidiary companies can earn up to LE3,000 a month, Gizawy says, but a worker doing the same job at the same level for the SCA can earn up to LE15,000, and “that’s not to mention the regular bonuses, housing compensation, medical care, and access to sporting clubs and other benefits granted to fulltime SCA employees," says Gizawy.

Workers in Sharm el-Sheikh have also been protesting, but their complaints are different — they’re fighting against mass layoffs at hotels and resorts as the tourism infrastructure there massively retracts.

Tourism in the coastal city was hard-hit after a Russian Metrojet airplane crashed in the Sinai Peninsula on October 31 shortly after taking off from Sharm el-Sheikh Airport.

Red Sea tourism has reportedly incurred losses of LE2 billion a month after tourists fled Sharm in the wake of the crash and Russia banned direct flights to and from Egypt, Egyptian Tourism Authority chief Samy Mahmoud told the privately owned daily Al-Shorouk.

Russia confirmed the tragedy was caused by a terrorist attack perpetrated by Sinai-based militants.

Around 30 percent of Sharm's workforce has been let go since the disaster, Tourist Guides Syndicate Treasurer Ahmed Hassan told Al-Shorouk.

Tourism workers are reportedly now filing complaints with the Manpower Ministry claiming they were fired illegally. Hotel managers have allegedly claimed their hotels needed to undergo renovation as a pretext to lay off the workers, and shut down several wings of their establishments, while other hotels have closed altogether. Many of those that remain open are on the verge of bankruptcy.

The mass layoffs in Sharm are triggering fears of increased unemployment rates across Egypt, particularly in the tourism sector.

Workers in Qalyubia are also unhappy. Since Tuesday, dozens workers have been protesting over their unpaid wages in front of the gates of public-sector Egyptian Dredging Company located in the town of Abu Zaabal, the privately owned news site Al-Bawaba reported. They say they haven’t been paid in two months.

And at the Shebin al-Kom Textiles Company in Monufiya, the entire workforce of 1,500 people has been on strike for four days to demand the payment of overdue bonuses, better wages and management changes. In addition, a group of former Shebin al-Kom Textile workers who say they were punitively fired or pushed into early retirement have been conducting their own protests for over a week to demand their jobs back.

Workers were galvanized to escalate their protest actions into a full-scale strike when the company’s security guards allegedly physically assaulted and injured several protesting workers last Saturday, the privately owned Al-Watan newspaper and Veto news site reported.

“Everyday for the past eight days, we have been protesting, rallying and demanding reinstatement in our company,” says Shimy. “Despite a court order for our reinstatement in 2011, we have not received any notifications or any proposals for our reinstatement.”

In addition, “we are demanding accountability for the administrative board,” says fired worker Ragab al-Shimy, “as well as the necessary investments to return our company to its original productive capacity, as opposed to the nearly 50 percent capacity at which it is now working.”

Previously a public-sector company, the Shebin al-Kom Textile Company was privatized almost 10 years ago when it was sold to the Indonesian-based Indorama Textiles Company. After workers filed lawsuits claiming the company was sold at below-market value, the Indonesian investors began divesting and firing workers en masse. The company's production dramatically deteriorated under these conditions.

In 2011, the Supreme Administrative Court ruled that the company was sold for less than its real value and ordered that it return to the management of the state-owned Holding Company for Textile Industries. The court also ordered the new managers to reinstate workers who had been fired or pushed into early retirement under the Indonesian owners.

In Alexandria, Upper Egypt, and several other governorates, some 12,000 workers employed by the state-owned petroleum services company Petrotrade have been on strike for the past 10 days as they demand their profit shares, which they say have only been distributed to top administrative board members, the privately owned Al-Tahrir news site reported.

The striking workers are based in 56 centers and offices across the governorate, Al-Shorouk reported. They have allegedly declined the company’s offer to implement a new profit-sharing agreement by March 15 if they suspend their strike.

Workers have held several strikes and protests at Petrotrade’s different branches nationwide over the past five years, but the majority have been in Cairo. The wave of worker dissatisfaction only recently spread to the Alexandria branches.

In Upper Egypt, workers reportedly occupied the Assiut Fertilizer Company factory on Wednesday to protest the administrative board’s decision to dock 25 percent of their wages. These deductions came just days after administrators established a new educational evaluation and placement system, according to Al-Watan.

Meanwhile, doctors working at hospitals belonging to the state-owned Health Insurance Authority have been protesting since early last week to demand parity with their colleagues employed by Health Ministry hospitals, which would include improved wages, benefits and working conditions.

The Doctors Syndicate planned a protest outside their downtown Cairo headquarters on Saturday to show solidarity with the protesting doctors, reported the state-owned Al-Ahram. The physicians are reportedly planning to escalate their protest actions if their demands are not met.

A list of these demands was sent to the Health Insurance Authority as well as the Cabinet, and the official responses — or lack thereof — will likely determine the doctors’ future course of action.

 

 

*Photo courtesy of Shutterstock

Russia plane crash due to terrorist attack - Russian Federal Security Service

RT News

Plane crash in Sinai a terrorist attack - Russian Security Service

17 Nov, 2015 

The Russian plane crash in Sinai, Egypt, was caused by a terrorist attack as traces of explosives have been found in the wreckage of the plane, Federal Security Service director Aleksandr Bortnikov told President Vladimir Putin.

“We can say that that [Sinai plane crash] was a terror act,” Bortnikov told Putin. According to the FSB chief, experts analyzed passengers’ belongings as well as the parts of the plane. “After the examination on all these objects, we have found traces of a foreign-made explosive substance,” Bortnikov said.

“During the flight, a homemade device with the power of 1.5 kilograms of TNT was detonated. As a result, the plane fell apart in the air, which can be explained by the huge scattering of the fuselage parts of the plane,” he added.

This not the first time that Russia has faced “barbarous terrorist crimes, more often without apparent causes, outside or domestic, as it was with the explosion at the railway station in Volgograd at the end of 2013,” He added: “We haven’t forgotten anything or anyone. The murder of our nationals in Sinai is among the bloodiest crimes in [terms of] the number of casualties.”

But Russia won’t be “wiping tears from our soul and heart,” he said. “This [tragedy] will stay with us forever. But this won’t stop us from finding and punishing the culprit.”

Vladimir Putin has vowed to find and punish the culprits behind the Sinai plane attack. “Our military work in Syria must not only continue. It must be strengthened in such a way so that the terrorists will understand that retribution is inevitable,” he said.

The Federal Security Service director also announced a reward of $50 million for information on those behind the terror attack on the A321.

The Russian president asked the Foreign Ministry to “call on all our [foreign] partners” to assist in the search for the terrorists behind the attack. “We look forward in the course of this work to [help from] all our friends, including in finding and punishing the criminals," he added.
 
Russia will act in accordance with Article 51 of the UN Charter, which provides for countries’ right to self-defense, Putin said. “Those who attempt to assist criminals should be aware that the consequences of such attempts will be entirely their responsibility,” he added.

The Kogalymavia A321 air crash took place over the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt on October 31. All 224 people on board the plane were killed, making it the deadliest air accident in modern Russian aviation history.



*Photo by Alaa El Kassas, courtesy of Getty Images

Workers question state claims of only 12.8% unemployment rate

Mada Masr

Workers question official statistics on unemployment figures

Monday, November 16, 2015

Jano Charbel 

According to figures published on Sunday by the state’s Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), unemployment increased slightly in the third quarter of 2015, affecting 12.8 percent of the Egyptian workforce.

CAPMAS reports there are currently 3.6 million unemployed Egyptians. According to these findings, the Egyptian workforce currently numbers around 28 million (from a total domestic population of over 89.4 million, with another eight million reportedly living abroad.)

Worker and labor rights activists, however, are questioning CAPMAS’s latest figures, claiming they are inaccurate.

CAPMAS indicates that 12.8 percent represents a minor increase in the national unemployment rate, as the second quarter of 2015 had registered a rate of 12.7 percent. This increase translates into 78,000 additional unemployed workers and employees in the third quarter of this year.

The figures do show improvement compared to the same quarter last year, when the official unemployment rate was 13.1 percent.

However, Fatma Ramadan, an industrial-safety inspector at the Ministry of Manpower and independent union organizer, believes that the unemployment figures cited by CAPMAS "are inaccurate and have been largely downplayed."

“The real unemployment rate may be up to double that which they are currently claiming,” she asserts.

"We demand genuine and accurate statistics regarding unemployment, so that we can find genuine solutions to this national problem,” Ramadan explains.

“Apparently, this unemployment rate doesn't include or take into account factors such as seasonal unemployment, temporary employment, masked and hidden unemployment, or child labor.”

Among those not accounted for within the statistics are homemakers, domestic help, and many other workers in the informal sector.

“CAPMAS calculates unemployment rates based on the numbers of those actively seeking employment — primarily at the offices of the Ministry of Manpower," Ramadan explains. “What typically happens is that if a jobless worker doesn’t find a job opportunity through the ministry, they don’t keep coming back.”

Ramadan adds that these workers may instead seek job opportunities via private employment firms, or informal networks.

Ramadan highlighted in particular the mass-layoffs associated with the closure of hundreds of state-owned factories since the 2011 revolution, adding that only a trivial number of new factories or industries are being established.

“The government is not concerned with the plight of unemployed workers, and this is reflected in the lack of implementation of judicial verdicts demanding that stalled public sector companies be re-operated, and that thousands of workers be reinstated,” Ramadan argues.

Proportional to the workforce, the unemployment rate in urban areas of Cairo currently amounts to 15 percent while in rural areas it reportedly amounts to 11.2 percent. These rates are gradually increasing – in both the countryside and cities – in comparison to the past four quarters.

CAPMAS issued additional details regarding the unemployment rate. According to its breakdown, 9.3 percent of males in the workforce are unemployed, while 24.9 percent of females in the workforce are currently jobless. Over the last few quarters, the unemployment rate continues to gradually increase among women, while it has slightly decreased among men.

Hisham al-Oql, one of nearly 600 former workers at the Tanta Flax and Oils Company, who has been unemployed for the past seven years, also points to the general governmental disinterest in labor rights.

Oql dismisses CAPMAS’s unemployment figures as inaccurate. "Real unemployment probably amounts to more than double the figure they’ve cited.”

“We are filing further legal appeals for the implementation of the court verdicts," Oql explains, referring to those issued in 2011 for the re-operation of stalled companies and reinstatement of workers. "Yet the government is simply ignoring our demands, and refusing to respect judicial rulings,” he adds.

Fifty-year-old Oql adds that he has to rely on his mother for financial assistance, so that he can support his wife and son.

For the past four years, Oql has been seeking to unify the efforts and demands of thousands of other jobless workers to demand the re-opening of the following stalled companies: Tanta Flax and Oils, Simo Paper, Nile Cotton Ginning, Nasr Steam Boilers and Omar Effendy department stores, among others.

Oql said the government talks of promoting production and creating additional job opportunities, but is not doing so effectively.

Ramadan also pointed to “an increase in the rate of punitive sackings of workers,” including laborers who are fired for organizing independent unions in their workplaces for protesting, striking, or "calling for the accountability of corrupt administrators.”

According to the independent unionist, the fourth quarter of 2015 may bear the grimmest unemployment rate yet, as tourism has been hit hard over the past two weeks in Sharm el-Sheikh and elsewhere, amid allegations of a bomb on board a Russian Metrojet passenger plane that crashed in Sinai, killing all 224 passengers and crew members on October 31.

Ramadan concluded that this employment crisis coincides with the high season of foreign tourism to Egypt.

*Photo courtesy of Aawsat.com

Putin suspends Russian flights to Egypt after Sinai plane crash

The Guardian
Russian plane crash: flight recorder captured 'sound of explosion'

Vladimir Putin orders halt to all flights to Egyptian airports as evidence mounts that flight 9268 was brought down rather than suffering mechanical failure

Saturday 7 November, 2015

The sound of an apparent explosion can be heard on the flight recorder of the Russian-operated plane that came down over the Sinai peninsula, killing all 224 people on board, adding to the evidence that a bomb was smuggled aboard, French media sources said on Friday.

Giving further credence to the idea that the plane crash was a terrorist act rather than because of structural failure, Russia, which for a week has been resistant to speculation about a bomb, suspended flights to all Egyptian airports.

An Egyptian-led international team of aviation experts, including some from France, successfully recovered the black box, the flight recorder, from the crash site.

Several French media outlets, including the television station France 2, reported that the investigators had listened to it and concluded that a bomb had detonated, which would seem to rule out structural failure or pilot error.

The pilots can be heard chatting normally, including contact with airport controllers, up until the apparent explosion.

One source close to the investigation told AFP that the black box data “strongly favours” this theory. While another source reportedly said: “Everything was normal during the flight, absolutely normal, and suddenly there was nothing,” adding that the plane had suffered “a violent, sudden,” end.

A news conference is due to be held on Saturday afternoon by the Egyptian aviation minister, Hossam Kamal, and the head of the Egypt-led investigation into the disaster, although the government warned it could be delayed.
 
While Russia had earlier suggested that the UK was acting prematurely in halting flights to the Red Sea resort over terrorism fears, Vladimir Putin ordered even wider restrictions on Friday, including halting all flights from Cairo. The head of his federal security services said it would be expedient to suspend flights until they had discovered why the Airbus A321 had crashed last Saturday.

Meanwhile, the US announced new security measures – including tighter screening – for flights from some airports in the Middle East. Jeh Johnson, the homeland security secretary, said that the move was motivated by “an abundance of caution.”

Russia initially dismissed claims by Islamic State of responsibility for downing the Metrojet flight, which came weeks after threats of retaliation for Russian planes bombing Syria, and Moscow reacted angrily after David Cameron said it was “more likely than not” a bomb.

Suspicions had intensified throughout the week that the Metrojet airliner was blown up. In addition to the French media reports about the black box, according to reports from the US, a “flash” from the plane was picked up by US satellites.

American officials have also told Reuters that intercepted intelligence “chatter” involving militant groups in Sinai supported the bomb theory. An Isis-affiliated group has claimed three times that it was responsible for bringing down the plane.

Russia will now begin to bring home its tourists, up to 79,000 of whom are currently on holiday in Egypt, according to Russian tourist authorities.

However, there were chaotic scenes at Sharm el-Sheikh airport on Friday as the schedule of “rescue flights” apparently agreed by airlines disintegrated. Thousands of travellers who had gone to the airport expecting to leave were further delayed. Eight easyJet flights were cancelled in the morning, while empty Monarch, Thomas Cook and Thomson airliners that had flown from Britain to bring back holidaymakers were diverted before reaching Egypt.

EasyJet claimed that Egyptian authorities were blocking their extra flights, as passengers were sent back to their hotels pending “top-level government talks” to resolve the situation. In extraordinary scenes at the airport, Britain’s ambassador to Cairo, John Casson, was heckled by passengers, who shouted: “What is the problem and when can we go home?”

Tour operators promised that stranded customers would remain in their accommodation free of charge or be reimbursed.

Egypt’s civil aviation ministry denied that it was blocking any flights, but said only eight of the 29 planned flights from Sharm el-Sheikh to the UK on Friday were operating because the airport did not have the capacity to store hold luggage. Only hand luggage is being allowed on flights back to Britain amid fears that a bomb was placed in the hold of the Metrojet plane.

Kamal, Egypt’s aviation minister, said: “The British airline [easyJet] wants to schedule 18 flights at the same time and wants to transport British passengers from Sharm el-Sheikh without their luggage, which we would have to transport later. This constitutes a huge burden on the airport because its capacity does not allow for that.”

Britain had expected that all passengers who were due to fly home this week before flights were cancelled over security fears – about 3,500 people – would have returned by Friday night. Patrick McLoughlin, the transport secretary, had told the BBC: “We feel that should be possible.” But as the day unfolded, a Downing Street spokesman said the situation was “very fluid … complicated and difficult.”

He said a broken-down aircraft at the airport had contributed to delays on the ground.

The first 180 tourists to return to the UK arrived at Gatwick airport on an easyJet flight at 4.25pm, describing chaotic scenes before departure. They said the pilot had assured them that intelligence officials from MI5 and the Egyptian army had guarded their plane before takeoff to ensure its safety.
 
Some were in tears outside the arrivals area of Gatwick. Emma Turner, from Kent, said her husband had been hit by other tourists, whom she believed to be Russian, amid scuffles to get through the departure area in Egypt. “It was absolutely horrendous. We got hit twice in arrivals at Sharm going through security. They had one door open and we had children with us.”

Nicky Bull, from Bath, described the airport as “dreadful”, saying: “I appreciate all the extra security, but they just could not cope with it … everybody was getting crushed. Everybody was shouting and screaming.”

Another passenger, Nathan Hazelwood, said security at Sharm was shocking. “I think it’s a joke. We need a bit of a presence out there. I don’t think we should be flying out there at all. Security needs to be tightened.”

A further 179 passengers were on board a second easyJet plane that landed at 5.30pm at Luton. A number of the cancelled UK –bound flights were expected to operate on Saturday, while the hold luggage of returning British passengers would be transported on separate flights over the next 10 days.

While Egypt said the decision to cancel the majority of UK-bound flights on Friday was purely logistical, an easyJet spokesman suggested it was a political decision after Britain took a lead in restricting travel. Egypt has rejected claims that Isis carried out the attack and maintains there is nothing wrong with security at Sharm el-Sheikh airport.

The country stands to lose a large, critical source of income in the region if the tourist industry is in effect shut down because of terrorism fears.

Isis, which has not generally pursued major attacks outside its base in Syria, has claimed responsibility for bringing down the plane. The suspension of flights to and from Egypt is the first sign that Moscow is attaching credibility to the theory, but the Kremlin continued to insist there is no presumption of a bomb.

A spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said: “The decision of the president to suspend flights to Egypt does not mean that a terrorist attack is the main suspected cause of the catastrophe with [the airline] Kogalymavia.” He said Putin was not suspending flights to Egypt until the cause of the crash was identified, but only “until it is possible to establish the necessary safety level for air travel.”

Russian state television channels have largely shied away from discussing the possibility that a terrorist bomb or missile could have caused the crash, and politicians described the UK’s decision to cancel Egypt flights as “psychological pressure” on Russia over its airstrikes against Syrian rebels.

On Friday, a Downing Street spokesman said Britain’s curbs on flights to the Red Sea resort were not dependent on the possible causes of the Metrojet disaster. “The evidence we received suggested there was a credible threat with regard to Sharm el-Sheikh airport, which is why we have taken the actions we have.”

In 2014, about 1.9 million Russians visited Egypt, making it the second most popular holiday destination for Russians after Turkey. Although the number of Russians holidaying abroad has been falling since the Ruble lost half its value in 2014, Egypt has remained popular, as operators have lowered prices for package tours there.

Vladimir Kaganer, the general director of the tourist agency Tez Tour, which said it had 10,000 clients in Egypt, claimed that an evacuation order would be needed to bring Russian holidaymakers home. “If people are at a resort and they come to them to say a plane was sent to take you back, they would say: ‘No, we want to be on holiday for two more weeks, we’re not going anywhere.’”

A third Russian government plane carrying victims’ remains and their personal belongings from Egypt returned to St Petersburg on Friday.
  

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*Reporting by: Ewen MacAskill, Gwyn Topham, Peter Beaumont in Sharm el-Sheikh

Ben Quinn, Andrew Sparrow and Alec Luhn in Moscow

**Photo courtesy of European Pressphoto Agency (EPA)

Russian plane crash in Egypt: Investigation begins into cause of aviation disaster

The Guardian
Russian plane crash: investigation begins into cause of A321 crash

Saturday - October 31, 2015

Both black boxes recovered as Russian aviation regulator cautions against speculation on causes of crash

• All 224 on board, including 17 children were killed, when a Metrojet flight from Sharm el-Sheikh bound for St Petersburg when the Airbus A321 crashed into the Sinai desert.
• Images of the wreckage show that the plane was almost completely destroyed.
• The cause of the crash remains unknown and claims of responsibility from Islamic State have been dismissed by Russian authorities.
• Families of the passengers have gathered at St Petersburg airport as bodies begin to arrive back in Russia.

Mokhtar Awad, an analyst with the Center for American Progress, tells the Guardian that the Islamic State’s claim of responsibility is quite vague.

“It doesn’t state how they were able to ‘down’ the plane allegedly. Even the most sophisticated of portable surface-to-air missiles cannot reach that high an altitude and are only a threat during periods of take-off or landing, but the plane had already climbed to its target altitude (from what we know thus far) when it began to likely experience technical failures. 

The local affiliate, Wilayat Sinai, has been under some pressure over the past few months and may have jumped the gun on taking credit. Although there isn’t a precedent for such a spectacular lie about something they claim to have done, Islamic State itself has recently been embellishing more and more. For instance it claimed that the recent prison raid by Kurdish and US special forces were a total failure, when in fact video evidence surfaced showed them freeing the hostages. So this may be an instance of the rooster taking credit for the dawn.”

Russian aviation regulator Rosaviatsia said it has not yet found any reason to blame the crash of the Russian airliner in Egypt on a technical failure, an error by the crew or external actions, RIA Novosti reports.

Until there is reliable evidence about the circumstances of what happened, there is no sense in putting forward and discussing any versions.

The Guardian’s reporter in Cairo Jahd Khalil analyses the burgeoning relationship between Russia and Egypt.

Russians make up 19.7% of tourist arrivals to Egypt, the largest of any single country and 1.7 million were forecast to arrive in 2015 alone.

The Egyptian government has cancelled visa costs for Russian tourists to encourage more visitors, and there is also a currency deal between Russia and Egypt being discussed.

Since President Sisi took power, relations between Russia and Egypt have grown closer and been lauded in Egyptian press.

Biltaeral agreements included developing nuclear power in Egypt and a $3.5 billion arms deal, as Egypt seeks to diversify its arms suppliers beyond the United States.

Egypt also welcomed Russia’s latest intervention in Syria to support even as its Gulf allies, which have kept the Egyptian economy afloat with aid, vehemently opposed the Russian intervention.

Islamic State claim 'not accurate' - Russia

Russia’s transport minister Maksim Sokolov has said that the claim Islamic State militants brought down the plane “can’t be considered accurate.”

Now in various media there is assorted information that the Russian [plane]... was supposedly shot down by an anti-aircraft missile, fired by terrorists.
This information can’t be considered accurate.

Shadi Bushra, reporting for the Guardian in Cairo, has also spoken to Mohamed Samir, Egypt’s army spokesman, who also refuted the claim.

They can put out whatever statements they want but there is no proof at this point that terrorists were responsible for this plane crash.

We will know the true reasons when the civil aviation authority in coordination with

Russian authorities completes its investigation.

But the army sees no authenticity to their claims or their video.

Egypt’s prosecutor general has agreed to allow a Russian government agency to participate in investigating what caused the Russian passenger plane to crash, according to state-owned newspaper Al-Ahram.

The North Sinai prosecution office has reportedly summoned air and ground traffic control officials for questioning over the incident, and ordered a technical team from the Civil Aviation Ministry to analyse the contents of the plane’s black box.

Meanwhile, Russian investigators are searching the Moscow offices of Metrojet, the company that chartered the plane.

The Investigative Committee is questioning both Metrojet employees and also the St Petersburg-based Brisco tour agency that had contracted for the flight from the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to St Petersburg, said spokesman Vladimir Markin.

This is the statement from a group claiming to be speaking on behalf of Islamic State, posted on their affiliate site, translated by our correspondent in Cairo, Jahd Khalil. It offers no evidence that the group brought down the plane, apart from their word.

Breaking: Downing of Russian airplane, killing of more than 220 Russian crusaders on board.

Soldiers of the Caliphate were able to bring down a Russian plane above Sinai Province with at least 220 Russian crusaders aboard.

They were all killed, praise be to God. O Russians, you and your allies take note that you are not safe in Muslims lands or their skies.

The killing of dozens daily in Syria with bombs from your planes will bring woe to you. Just as you are killing others, you too will be killed, God willing.

Many experts have expressed scepticism that groups operating in Sinai have the capacity to bring down an airline from the height it was travelling.

Islamic State-linked group 'claims responsibility' for crash

A militant group affiliated to Islamic State in Egypt has claimed responsibility for bringing down the Russian passenger plane as it flew through Sinai peninsula on Saturday.

The claim was circulated by supporters on Twitter and also published on the Aamaq news website, which has previously been used on a semi-official basis by Islamic State to circulate propaganda.

There is no confirmation from any other sources that the plane crashed as a result of terrorist activity - and Egyptian officials were quick to rule that out as a cause of the crash earlier this morning.

A report in July by military expert IHS Janes said Islamic State affiliate group Wilayat Sinai had propaganda videos in which militants are seen with a type of man-portable air defence systems (SA-18 Igla MANPADS), which can reach about 10,000 feet.

The airliner was said to be travelling at least 31,000 feet, before it made a steep descent as it crashed.

Russia’s Investigative Committee said on Saturday it was checking fuel samples from the airliner’s last refuelling stop, in the Russian city of Samara, news agency RIA Novosti reported.

Spokesman Vladimir Markin said investigators are questioning people who were involved in preparing the aircraft and its crew and are carrying out searches at Moscow’s Domodedovo airport where the airline that operated the plane is based.

Passengers at St Petersburg airport on Saturday morning who had been due to fly out to Egypt on holiday with Moscow-based tour operator Brisco, have said their plane has failed to show up.

 
“Nobody came out to talk to us yet, we don’t know what plane we’ll be on,” a passenger called Anzhelika told the Rossiya-24 channel.

“If it’s Kogalymavia, we don’t want to fly.”

No representative of the airline could be found at the airport and nobody at the company was answering the phones, AFP reported.

*Photos courtesy of ITAR/TASS, and AFP/Getty Images

Prosecution imposes gag order on Mexican tourists killing investigation

Ahram Online 

Egypt's prosecution imposes gag order on Mexican tourists killing investigation

The gag order applies to audio, video, print and online media

Wednesday 16 Sep 2015

Egypt's prosecution has imposed a gagging order on the investigation into the mistaken killing on Sunday of Mexican tourists on a safari trip in Egypt, Aswat Masriya reported on Wednesday afternoon.

Zakaria Osman, the assistant prosecutor-general, told reporters the gag order applies to audio, video, and print media, as well as internet sites.

The prosecution's statements and updates about the case will be excluded from the order, he added.

Eight Mexicans were killed according to Mexican officials among 12 people who lost their lives  and 10 who were wounded on Sunday after security forces fired on the group of tourists mistakenly.

The interior ministry has stated that the forces had been chasing militants in the Western Desert.
Egypt's prosecution has regularly issued gag orders on politically sensitive investigations such as the inquest into the murder of former prosecutor-general Hisham Barakat and investigations concerning the militant outlawed Islamist group Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis.


*Photo courtesy of Reuters