The Executive Regulations of the New Trade Union Law: Entrenching Union Subordination to Authority

Statement by the Revolutionary Socialists

The executive regulations for the new Trade Union Law have finally been issued, opening the door for labor elections set to begin in mid-May. These elections will end the most extended union cycle in Egypt’s labor history, which started in 2006 and was meant to conclude in 2011. However, right after the union elections wrapped up in November 2006, Egypt saw its most significant wave of labor strikes, starting with the Misr Spinning and Weaving Company in Mahalla during the first week of December 2006. These strikes quickly spread across all governorates and labor sectors in Egypt, revealing the profound disconnect between the state-aligned Trade Union Federation and the labor movement and exposing the official union’s inability to control or accommodate the workers’ demands.

Even with the complete collapse of the union organization in 2011, the authorities avoided holding new elections until they could fully control the labor movement and independent unions. This was done to ensure the elections would result in a union utterly loyal to the authorities.
For seven years, workers were denied the right to choose their representatives. Instead, the regime kept opportunistic leaders in charge—leaders who relied solely on their support for an authoritarian regime hostile to wage earners for legitimacy—despite numerous court rulings that invalidated the elections.
The conferences organized by the official federation to back dictator Sisi illustrate the federation’s proper role.

The new law and its regulations are flawed, allowing administrative interference, putting hurdles in the path of independent unions, ensuring that veteran union leaders loyal to the authorities remain in power within the state-run federation, and providing only 60 days for independent unions to legalize their status. However, reopening the door to elections after it has been closed since 2011 might pave the way for reviving the labor movement, which has suffered immensely since the counterrevolution’s victory. The counterrevolution has employed every tactic to displace labor leaders, criminalize protests, and wipe out independent unions, leaving only the state-controlled and business-friendly union to represent workers.
Moreover, the government’s new wave of privatization—selling 23 profitable public companies on the stock market, liquidating companies, reintroducing early retirement schemes, and cutting wages while prices rise—will intensify the struggle.

The labor movement is now fighting a critical battle to create a body that defends its economic and social rights against tyranny and exploitation. This fight involves resisting the administrative authority’s efforts to block independent unions from legalizing their status, as seen recently, and securing positions for militant leaders on the boards of base union committees within the state-run federation.
All those striving for political and social change must join this struggle alongside labor leaders, confronting the state’s attempts to dominate the trade union movement. This can be achieved by creating a program that reflects the demands of wage earners, supporting honest labor leaders who will run in the elections and face wide-ranging administrative and security interventions to prevent their representation of workers, and continuing the fight to reclaim independent union organizations.

Indeed, participating in union elections, especially at the grassroots level, should not be viewed as a replacement for the ongoing effort to build and support independent union organizations. Rather, fighting for space within the state-run federation complements, rather than replaces, the broader struggle for complete independence of trade unions from state control.
Workers of Egypt, step forward!