Co-ordinated strikes by train drivers demanding a rise in their bonuses brought much of the Egyptian rail network to halt for seven hours on 17 August. Drivers staged sit-ins across the tracks at a number of stations including Alexandria, Tanta, Zagazig and Cairo’s mainline Ramsis Station. Military police moved in to break up the sit-in…
A public transport strike last week in the Tunisian capital, brought the capital virtually to a halt, with 80% of all bus and metro workers on strike the city came to a standstill. The strike was called for by the new independent Union for Public Transport Workers, the assistant General Secretary of the union Hassan…
Independent unions at six hospitals have taken their first steps towards regular co-ordination. Representatives from Manshiyet al-Bakri Hospital, Al-Du’aa Hospital, Al-Zawiya al-Hamra Hospital, Al-Abbasiyya Mental Health Hospital, Al-Munira Hospital and Al-Haram Hospital issued a statement on 9 August pledging to meet regularly in order to build the independent unions across the health sector. They will…
A series of hospital strikes gripped Aleppo late in July, following the arrest of one doctor at a hospital in the city. The strikes started with 100 resident doctors going on strike at El-Razi hospital in Aleppo on 26 July, after their colleague, dentist Ayman Henawy, was arrested by security forces at the hospital. Aleppo…
Over 9000 civil registry workers in Egypt announced a nation-wide indefinite strike at the end of July. The strikes gradually swept through Egypt from Cairo and Giza to Alexandria and Aswan, until a nation-wide indefinite strike to include all 26 provinces was announced on the 27th of July. The striking workers are demanding their wages…
Striking workers from the Cairo Civil Registry Office talk about the key role it plays in corruption trials and cases, the majority of which they say will involve real estate corruption. They demand that their office become an independent judicial body, to avoid external pressure to bend the outcome of cases in favour of the accused.…
Egyptian NGO Awlad al-Ard publishes regular reports of strike activity in Egypt. It is not clear exactly what the sources are for this information, but presumably the reports are largely compiled from press coverage of strikes. The distinction between these different categories of collective action is not particularly clear. For example, most sit-ins will necessarily…
On the 30th of July and after almost a week of protest on poor wage conditions and various promised bonuses, overtimes and allowances being denied to them, all workers at the Vinavil Chemical Factory in Suez’s Industrial Complex announced indefinite strike. The Egyptian-Italian owned company failed to reach any compromise with the workers. One worker…
Dozens of workers occupy the 2nd floor of the State TV and Radio building in Cairo.
MENA Solidarity Network 