Workers at the Nasr Company for Textiles (Kabo) in Alexandria, continue their strike for the 11^th day, with over 4000 workers on strike today, until their demands are met.
Their demands include:

1 – The removal of management (Amin Abaza, former Minister of Agriculture – Hamada Qalyouby Secretary of the NDP in Qalyobia and one of the founders of the QIZ agreement with Israel – Samir Samy Riad – Mohammed Marzouk – Amal Tobgi representative for Misr Insurance Company – Rifaat Hilal)

2 – The appointment of temporary management.

3 – Investigation into all complaints and supporting documents submitted with reference to corruption in the administration.

4 – That workers’ annual profit shares be paid to them as they were up until 2005, when management fabricated alleged evidence of budget imbalances and losses.

5 – Investigation into the current CEO he board of directors regarding the manipulation of company shares in the stock market over the past 7 years.

6 – Investigation into the sale of land and fixed assets owned by the company

7 – Investigation of current officials emptying the company’s warehouses and stores in Alexandria and transferring them to Abbasia in Cairo, and accountability for what went missing.

8 – To investigate Atef Ebeid concerning the privatisation of the company and that it return to the public sector.

One of the workers said: “We want to return our company to the public sector, the company’s surplus was over 26 million pounds annually but since the privatisation campaign began conditions have deteriorated, and mismanagement is what brought the company to this state. Workers are working hard and long hours and barely earn pennies for it … With starting salaries of 160 pounds while there are those who get 50 thousand pounds a month in management.”

Another worker said: “I do not know why they don’t want to apply the minimum wage on the private sector, I have worked here for 33 years and my salary has never exceeded 700 pounds (70 GBP). They persecute us because most workers here are women and think we’ll forego our rights, they think we are too weak to protect our demands but we are continuing this strike. Even the crèche where we used to leave our children, they sold it off and now workers’ children sit behind the warehouses with rat around.

A company accountant also verified that KABO is worth more than 2 billion pounds and yet it was sold off for just 192 million pounds. And that there was 55 million pounds of workers’ money that was use to purchase the Alexandria Company for Spinning, and that workers’ are now being refused their shares in the company on the grounds that it is losing money, even though its making huge profits.