A nationwide train drivers strike continued into its second day
on Monday, in protest against the “government neglect of their demands
for higher salaries.”
An official source at the
Egyptian National Railway Authority
(ENRA) estimated its losses at about LE4 million due to the cancellation of
nearly 1,100 train trips, and giving ticket refunds to passengers.
Since the start of the strike, passengers have been lining up at
ticket booths to get their money back, while transportation police
forces have spread around stations to secure the facilities and calm
angry crowds.
The strike was initially scheduled for 1 April but was put on hold
for negotiations between a delegation of train drivers with the
Transport Ministry, Labor Ministry, the ENRA, and
the Shura Council’s Transportation Committee. The meetings broke down on
Saturday evening, leading to widespread dissatisfaction among thousands
of railway workers, and on Sunday morning, thousands of train drivers
launched the largest such work stoppage since the historic railway
strike of 1986.
The train drivers declared that they would not call off their strike until their demands are met.
The strike has paralyzed the country’s transportation lifeline, and
resulted in work stoppages for all sectors of railway employees —
whether they had intended to participate in the strike or not. The ENRA
is said to employ around 73,000 workers nationwide.
Hussein Zakariya, Director of ENRA, announced
“an immediate bonus to committed train drivers who are doing their job
and care for the interests of the Railway Authority and ordinary
citizens.”
Legal action will be taken against striking drivers, Zakariya added.
The Railway Authority has made several attempts to overcome the crisis,
including refunding tickets and guiding passengers to alternative means
of transportation.
“Although we’ve had some limited strikes in 2008 and 2009 and since the (January 25) Revolution, this is
clearly the largest and longest-lasting strike of railway workers since
1986,” says a control tower worker, who wished to remain anonymous.
On Saturday, ENRA officials had offered protesting train drivers a 10
percent bonus that would come into effect in May. However, this did not
appease the disgruntled drivers, who had put forth a list of clear
demands and grievances.
Workers are demanding bonuses according to hours of actual work per
month, a realistic pay-scale according to kilometers driven, food
compensation payments and eight paid days of rest per month.
“This so-called bonus would have increased our monthly wages by a
meager LE 20 to LE70. This is not what we are demanding,” says train
driver Ashraf Momtaz.
“We are demanding our basic rights. We demand bonuses according to
the number of hours of work and overtime work which we contribute,” he
adds. “The ENRA insists on paying us only 10 piasters [about 1 US cent]
for each kilometer we drive. This is beyond exploitation, as the only
sub-unit of the Egyptian pound in circulation at the moment is the 25
piaster coin.”
Momtaz adds that train drivers are demanding eight paid days of rest per month, “just like the metro conductors receive.”
While he does agree that the Railway Authority is cash-strapped and low on
resources, he attributes this financial crisis to the "corruption and
mismanagement of the ENRA by its authorities.”
“We could have enough money for our demands, if there a maximum wage cap was imposed on the ENRA’s leaders,” he argues.
Dissatisfied drivers claimed that the top 18 railway officials are paid an aggregate of LE1.4 million pounds per month.
ENRA officials could not be reached for comment to validate this figure.
Sitting next to Momtaz in the train drivers’ locker-room at the Ramses
railway station, conductor Tareq Mahmoud comments, “Beyond our
payments and holidays, we are demanding that the ENRA properly maintain
its tractors, carriages, machinery, train tracks, stations and railway
crossings.”
“Drivers, employees and commuters alike have their lives threatened
on a daily basis by the operation of these outdated and disintegrating
railway networks,” Mahmoud adds. “There’s not a single train tractor
which is fit for service."
Fellow train driver Ibrahim Abdallah believes their demands can be realized by going on strike. “We’ve tried protesting and we’ve entered
into repeated negotiations, to no avail.”
Abdallah adds that metro workers embarked on a strike on 14 November
2012 and within three hours were granted increased wages, and also won
the dismissal of their “corrupt chief” from the metro authority.
Some conductors also demand profit-sharing, as is the case with metro
workers. However, it’s unclear how this would work, as the ENRA has been
reporting annual losses of millions of pounds.
“Nobody except the top administrators of the ENRA are aware
of how much the railways are making or losing. There is a total lack of
transparency,” claims the anonymous tower control operator.
“We control workers didn’t announce our participation in today’s
strike; it is only the train drivers who launched this strike action,”
he adds.
As trains piled up in Cairo’s central Ramses station, the worker
explains that he, along with all other sectors of railway employees were
caught up in this strike whether they agreed with it or not.
“Not all train drivers were involved in this strike. We had drivers
operating trains from Upper Egypt this morning, but when they arrived in
Ramses they were paralyzed by other drivers’ strikes in Cairo and the
Nile Delta. As a result, everything came to a standstill, including the
control towers,” he points out.
“Although we did not directly involve ourselves in this strike, I
still support the right to strike … If the demands of the train drivers
are met, then we also want our demands to be realized. We all want
improved wages and working conditions, together with safer and more
secure railway networks. We will demand equity in rights, like those of
the drivers,” he continues.
Authorities and the state-owned media had claimed that the Armed
Forces would take over operations in case of a train drivers’ strike,
but “neither the army nor the police are capable of driving or operating
these trains” claims Momtaz. “We even operate the army trains for the
Armed Forces.”
In March 2012, the military had operated alternate bus services
during the Delta Bus workers’ strike, but they appear unable to fill the
same function of strikebreaker during this railway strike.
The Railway Authority sought to find replacements for the strikers
among metro conductors, but they reportedly refused out of solidarity.
Meanwhile, chaos prevailed in numerous railway stations across the
country on Sunday, as virtually all railway operations came to a
complete standstill. Bus and microbus stations became overburdened as
throngs of stranded commuters sought other means of transport.
Crowds of
commuters had to struggle amongst themselves to find spaces on these
buses. In Assiut, university students blocked the streets around the
main train station in protest against the strike, with some
demonstrators entering the station to hurl stones at the striking
conductors and demanding that they get back to work.
Railway Authority officials and security authorities have threatened
to fire the conductors and press criminal charges against them if they
do not end the strike.
“We are aware that the country’s railways have been negatively
affected by these protests. We ourselves have been affected it, and we
also know that the ENRA is losing millions as a result,” Momtaz states.
“But we are doing this for the sake of our rights, and for the sake
of improved trains and services for all commuters. This is our last
resort, as we have exhausted all other means of negotiations with the
ENRA.”
