Workers in five oil and soap companies in the Delta towns of Damietta, Mansoura, Zagazig were set to strike on 15 December. Mohammed Abd-al-Rahman, a workers’ leader in the Sandub Oil Factory said that the dispute dated from the beginning of the revolution, when workers raised a demand for a 50% raise in their bonuses. A 3-day strike won a promise from the board of directors to implement the raise, but now the management was trying to renege on the deal, he added.

Midhat Issa, a workers’ leader in the factory said that workers were now demanding the sacking of the board of directors and the company’s return to the public sector.