EGYPT LABOR: STRIKES ONGOING, GOE REFUTES ILO

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 CAIRO 001877 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR NEA/ELA (NAFZIGER),DRL (ANZALDUA) NSC FOR WATERS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ELAB ECON PGOV PHUM EG SUBJECT: EGYPT LABOR: STRIKES ONGOING, GOE REFUTES ILO REPORT REF: CAIRO 01595 -------------- SUMMARY -------------- ¶1. (SBU) Although no broad-based alternative worker movement has yet to coalesce, the Kefaya movement's actions in solidarity with striking textile workers in Mansoura could hint at future coordination. Strong GOE rebukes greeted the release of an ILO report that cited employment discrimination against Egypt's Copts, but ILO operations here do not appear to be affected. Minister of Manpower Aisha Abdel Hady is under pressure, not only from the strikes but from the political backlash of her signing a labor protocol with Saudi Arabia. End summary. -------------- STRIKES PERSISTENT -------------- ¶2. (SBU) Some of Egypt's manyrecent labor strikes are beginning to elicit broder support from opposition and civil society grops. The primarily female workers at the MansouraEspana Garments Company are continuing the sit-in strike launched on April 21 over years of unpaid onuses and the potential sale of the firm (refte). The Kefaya ("Enough!") opposition movement ha joined with labor activists, bloggers, and othe civil society groups to organize a boycott of te United Bank, which owns a controlling interestin the company. In addition to the boycott, Kefya is organizing a letter-writing campaign, and pominent leftist blogger Hossam Hamalway posted ful contact details of the bank's management on hiswebsite. The group plans to stage a solidarity rotest in front of the bank's Mansoura branch onJune 19, and is planning to organize a "solidarit trip" by "activists and interested journalists"to join in the action. According to reports, someKefaya and Tagamu Party members have also joinedthe workers at the factory and provided them wit food and other essentials. Kefaya has also recenly organized protests against privatization of sate-owned companies under the banner of "No to Slling Egypt." ¶3. (SBU) The Mansoura-Espana factry employs 284 workers, seventy-five percent of hich are female. In response to their ongoing sit-in, the workers report that the company has shut off food and water, and report that on June 16 six workers were fired and fifteen others referred to the local police station under accusations of inciting unrest. According to the striking workers, the bank notified the workers that it planned to liquidate the company despite ongoing negotiations between workers, the Egyptian Trade Union Federation, and the Minister of Manpower Aisha Abdel Hady. Operations are currently suspended. ¶4. (SBU) In another textile industry strike, press reports indicate the management of the El-Seyoof Company for Spinning and Weaving in Alexandria cut off water and electricity and withdrew canteen workers to force an end to an ongoing workers' protest. Echoing earlier GOE attempts to head off protests, direct intervention by Minister Abdel Hady in early June forestalled a strike in solidarity with a dismissed worker at the Bolivara Spinning and Weaving Company. Abdel Hady reportedly contacted the worker directly via telephone and promised to reinstate him. Despite the treatment of some workers engaged in on-going strikes, post-settlement employer reprisals against workers do not appear widespread. The hunger strikers at the Suez Integrated Oil Company, for example, not only extracted concessions from their employer but had their strike days counted as holidays. ¶5. (SBU) Regarding the potential for strikes at Cairo's public flour mills (reftel) that could potentially disrupt bread provision to the capital, labor activist contacts tell us that the Ministry of Social Solidarity has maintained an active and engaging negotiating process with the workers. These efforts, they said, have thus far prevented strikes but have yet to achieve a final settlement. -------------- ILO REPORT RAISES OFFICIAL HACKLES -------------- ¶6. (SBU) Assertions regarding employment discrimination against Egypt's Coptic Christian community in the May 2007 International Labor Organization (ILO) report "Equality at CAIRO 00001877 002 OF 002 Work: Tackling the Challenges" provoked angry retorts from senior GOE officials. Abdel Hady immediately refuted the allegations, saying that Egypt's constitution guarantees citizenship rights, and that Copts controlled about one-third of the nation's wealth and headed some of its largest companies. On June 6, Minister of Foreign Affairs Ahmed Abul Gheit issued a strong rejection of the report, expressing his resentment over the ILO's reliance on "unreliable and inaccurate information that lacks objectivity." ILO headquarters later issued a statement that was carried in some Egyptian newspapers regretting the sourcing of their information, which they had drawn from the copts.com website. ¶7. (SBU) Abdel Hady's comments, particularly those regarding the Copt's reported share of national wealth, generated criticism from some in the Coptic community here. Some prominent Copts here said the minister's comments, which also referred to Christians as brothers, seemed to divide the country into religious camps and could incite sectarian strife. Other questioned the figures she put forth and demanded to know her sourcing. ¶8. (SBU) The Senior Program Officer for the ILO Sub-regional Office for North Africa in Cairo said that her office had not received any blowback -- official or otherwise -- over the issue, and host-nation cooperation on the various ILO programs here was unaffected. She added that the ILO and the GOE appeared to have resolved the issue in Geneva. -------------- EGYPTIAN MAIDS TO SAUDI? -------------- ¶9. (SBU) In early June, reports of a protocol signed by Abdel Hady and the Chairman of the Saudi National Committee for Recruitment and Manpower Saad al-Baddah, allegedly regarding the recruitment of 120,000 Egyptian maids to work in the Kingdom, caused a public outcry in Cairo. Firing back at criticism from Parliament and the general public over the "demeaning," humiliating" and "scandalous" agreement, Abdel Hady said the protocol dealt with bilateral labor issues broadly and had nothing to do with maids. Specifically, she said, the protocol aimed to ensure proper treatment of Egyptian nurses who tended to elderly patients in Saudi, stipulating provision of adequate housing and living conditions. ¶10. (SBU) Abdel Hady added in her public statements that the Ministry of Manpower and Migration prevents the travel of female labor to Saudi under the title of "maid" or "housekeeper" in order to protect "the dignity of Egyptian labor." Many women's rights activists dismissed the minister's assertions, however. Head of the Egyptian Center for Women's Rights Nehad Abul Komsan said the move would propagate a "slavery market" whereby young Egyptian girls would be sold into the Gulf, and accused the minister of trying to rid Egypt of excess population. Director of the Women's Issues Center Azza Kamel told journalists that this showed the absence of a strategy for tackling poverty and unemployment and could lead to organized trafficking. -------------- COMMENT -------------- ¶11. (SBU) Aside from some recent small-scale conferences, no major push has been made among workers to better coordinate their efforts and form a broader cross-sectoral movement. We will watch to see if the Kefaya movement's actions in solidarity with the Mansoura-Espana workers morph into a larger-scale effort. Despite the sensitivities aroused by the ILO report, it doesn't appear to have affected GOE-ILO cooperation on programs here, and we do not anticipate the incident in and of itself would hinder the implementation of the proposed USDOL-funded labor democratization project. Already under pressure over the strikes, the controversy caused by the "maids" labor protocol with Saudi Arabia has added to speculation among observers about the increasing potential for Aisha Abdel Hady's imminent departure from the cabinet. JONES