EGYPT’S NEW military government has appealed for an end to the strikes sweeping the country as workers use their newfound freedom to demand pay increases after years of rising food prices.
Transport, bank and tourism employees were joined by steel, oil and gas workers in stoppages that undermined the army’s attempts to return Egypt to normality after the three weeks of unrest that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak.
The ruling military council called on Egyptians to go back to work, saying that strikes “damage the security of the country”.
“Noble Egyptians, see that these strikes, at this delicate time, lead to negative results,” it said in a statement read on state television.
Reuters reported that the army was considering using martial law to ban work stoppages, although that may prove difficult to square with its promises of democratic liberalisation.
In the statement yesterday, the army also called for an end to political protests, having forced the last few hundred remaining demonstrators out of Cairo’s Tahrir Square. They had refused to leave until the military stepped aside in favour of an interim civilian administration. Soldiers barred foreign television cameras from filming the operation.
The army sought to reassure youth leaders, who played a leading role in the protests, that it is serious about democratisation by telling them it will hold a referendum on constitutional changes within two months. But it is not clear who will be making the changes or to what extent they will free Egyptian politics.
The most immediate challenge for the military regime, though, is the unleashing of years of pent-up frustration and anger among workers about rising prices.
More than half of Egypt’s population lives on less than €1.20 a day. They are heavily reliant on subsidised foods, particularly bread, after sharp increases in the price of staples such as rice and pasta in recent years.
Egypt’s military rulers declared a bank holiday yesterday after bank employees went out on strike along with workers in the state-run oil and gas industries, ambulance drivers, textile and steelworkers, and post office employees. Police officers and employees of the culture and health ministries also joined.
Hundreds of Bank of Alexandria workers demonstrated outside its branch in central Cairo, urging their bosses to “leave, leave” – the same slogan used in mass protests against Mr Mubarak.
Striking workers in the state-owned Cairo transport authority took to the streets to demand a pay increase and benefits such as free hospital care.
Among them was Ahmed Said, who has worked as a driver for the company for 18 years. His take-home pay is about €71 a month, of which more than half goes on rent. He feeds a family of five on the rest.
“There is just enough money for food. We have meat once a week but not all weeks. Some days we do not eat dinner. If a child goes to the hospital . . . then me and my wife do not have a meal,” he said.
“This is wrong. How can Mubarak be worth so much and we have so little?”
He said that after years of staying silent out of fear of the pervasive secret police under Mr Mubarak's rule, he would not now be intimidated. "Before, we had to be careful. We would be arrested. But now we can talk. We need food. We have been on strike four days. The army cannot stop us." – ( Guardianservice)