By Hisham Fouad

A new rash of strikes across the Egyptian textile industry shows the challenges faced by the military-backed government installed in the wake of Mohamed Morsi’s overthrow.

The new government has been in power less than a month, but workers’ protests are already on the rise. This is the result of the continuation of the same anti-worker policies which pushed Egyptians into organising the largest number of protests anywhere in the world last year and was the main factor behind the fall of the Muslim Brotherhood regime.

Workers at Nasr Spinning and Weaving Company in Mahalla walked out on strike on 31 July in protest at delays in paying their wages, and the failure to pay 3 months of their annual profit-sharing bonus in time for Ramadan.

Meanwhile, the same demands are behind a twelve-day strike by workers at Stia Spinning and Weaving Company, while protests by workers at Misr Spinning and Bayda Dyers in Kafr al-Dawwar have reached day four. In Damietta, workers and the Damietta Spinning Company walked out over the same demands.

This is a translated excerpt from the Arabic, available here

Damietta Spinning Company workers on strike