Transport workers played a key role in the strikes which broke out in the final week of Mubarak’s rule, starting with the sit-in by 6,000 workers employed by several of the Suez Canal service companies on 8 February. Other significant strikes have included those by workers at the container terminal in Port Said on 27 February, which won recognition for the independent union committee.

The International Transport Federation reports that new seafarers’ union committees in Alexandria, Port Said and Suez are working towards creating a new national union for seafarers, while new union committees have been formed by air traffic controllers and at Egypt Air.

Cairo public transport workers announced the formation of an independent union on 24 March at a meeting in the Journalists’ Union building in central Cairo, and lodged their registration papers with the Ministry of Labour in early April.

The Suez Canal service workers have also formed independent union committees which led a renewed strike and sit-in over demands to equalise their pay and conditions with employees of the Suez Canal Authority on 3 April.