Workers of the Mahallah city based factory are demanding that Prime Minister Essam Sharaf’s Government should raise its capital investment in the firm and ensure enough raw cotton supply for production.In order to push their demands before the Government, around 22,000 workers of Egypt’s biggest public sector textile factory, the Egypt Weaving and Textile Company have announced that they would resort to an indefinite strike since September 10.

Workers of the Mahallah city based factory are demanding that Prime Minister Essam Sharaf’s Government should raise its capital investment in the firm and ensure enough raw cotton supply for production.

The workers are demanding a hike in minimum wage to help them keep pace with mounting inflation. They are also asking the Government to immediately make payments for merit allowances that are outstanding for two months.

In a statement, the workers said that they intend to protest not just to earn better lives for themselves, but even to upgrade the standard of living of all the workers in the country.

Strikes that Mahallah workers staged against overthrown President Mubarak’s regime in 2006 and 2008 gained vast popularity and several activists and analysts in the country believe that these strikes had formed the base for eruption of January 25 Revolt.

Indeed, the Mahallah workers’ February 8 strike played an important part in sealing the ex-President Mubarak’s fate, compelling him to resign as President on February 11.
POST: 2024-04-28