Statement by the “Towards a Fair Labor Law” Campaign: No to Security Terrorism Against Workers at Tora Cement, Katameya, and Helwan

Statement by the Revolutionary Socialists

The state of business people and labor exploitation brokers remains insistent on suppressing workers’ protests. The latest instance occurred on February 8, when police forces intervened in the strike staged by cement workers at the Helwan, Torah, and Katameya factories—all owned by an Italian investor. These factories subcontract labor through several labor supply contractors, such as Al-Aqsa, Menko, and Ahmed Ahmed Othman, who provide workers at all levels, ranging from packing and loading workers to engineers and technical workers in production and maintenance. The authorities wielded police and military forces, positioning an army armored vehicle outside the factory. In contrast, several police officers intimidated the Helwan cement workers by detaining four of them in a police van and negotiating the dispersal of the strike under threat of arrest on charges of protesting. This scene was similarly repeated at the Torah factory, where workers were threatened with arrest on charges of protesting, leaving them with no option but to end the strike.

Contract workers live in unbearable conditions, suffering from wage disparities compared to permanent workers. This violates Article 79 of the labor law, which mandates equal pay for subcontracted and permanent workers as long as they perform the same tasks. In addition, risk allowances, occupational safety gear, professional health and safety measures, and healthcare benefits are absent in producing a commodity that first-world countries ceased manufacturing decades ago due to its devastating impact on health and the environment.

When workers present their demands, they are first ignored, then met with empty promises of implementation, followed by deliberate stalling. Workers who lose patience and are left with no alternatives resort to sit-ins and strikes. At this point, management—supported by police and military forces—resorts to intimidation tactics involving arrests and ready-made accusations of terrorism or affiliation with political Islamist groups, driving workers back into submission and silencing them in the face of injustice. At the Torah factory, management’s disregard for the workers’ protests extended to the point that officials from the labor office who came to register the workers’ complaints attempted to meet with the factory manager, but he refused. As a result, the labor office officials were forced to file a police report documenting the manager’s refusal to meet with them or to participate in negotiations between him and the workers. A new round of talks is scheduled for next Sunday, after which the workers will decide whether to resume their strike.

The demands of the cement workers employed by contractors, like those of other workers, include their right to the regular payment of annual raises, risk allowances, and meal allowances—incremental increases that offset their low wages and help them cope with difficult living conditions. Additionally, they demand the provision of occupational safety gear and health and safety measures to mitigate some of the risks inherent in the profession, as well as the contracting of private hospitals by the contractors to provide adequate healthcare for work-related injuries, which range from respiratory illnesses to amputations of hands or legs for those working on the packing belts.

It is worth mentioning here the fundamental amendment introduced by the campaign in its draft of an alternative labor law, calling for the complete abolition of the principle of employing an intermediary between workers and the employer, represented by labor supply companies. This cancerous tumor has spread throughout all sectors of the state, particularly in construction and petroleum, resulting in the complete erosion of workers’ rights—beginning with the absence of formal documentation of the employment relationship, continuing with the deprivation of adequate healthcare and social welfare, and inevitably culminating in the denial of fair wages for the work performed.

The campaign announces its full solidarity with the cement workers and their legitimate demands and calls upon all trade unions, human rights, and revolutionary forces to stand in solidarity with them. It also raises the question: Has security become the default approach to handling labor protests demanding a dignified life? And does the Mehleb government genuinely believe it can achieve stability while pampering investors, cutting subsidies, and simultaneously suppressing workers’ protests?

Campaign for a Fair Labor Law