Dozens of workers at the military’s Muhemmat Factory in Gharbiya on Wednesday protested for increased pay.
The workers demonstrated in front of a military zone in the governorate capital of Tanta and announced an open-ended hunger strike starting Wednesday to call for higher allowances and a 200 percent increase in their bonuses.
They said more than 2,500 people work at the factory, which makes military uniforms. The employees said their LE700 monthly salary is not suitable compensation for the difficult working conditions.
In August 2010, an Egyptian court issued suspended sentences against five workers at a military production factory after they organized a protest to call for better safety precautions inside the factory. The military prosecution charged them with rioting in a military zone and assaulting the factory’s chairperson. Plots of land on which military factories are built are dubbed military zones.
Translated from Al-Masry Al-Youm
