For the past few years Egypt’s labor movement has been sending shock waves through the country, as the number of workers involved in strikes and protests has surpassed anything Egypt has seen in decades. Amid all this enters Nagi Rashad, the man responsible for the current ripple on the streets of Cairo after winning a court ruling obliging the government to set a minimum wage in accordance with rising prices.
Rashad told Al-Masry Al-Youm that the labor movement’s renewed energy began in December 2006. “It was the Mahalla textile worker strikes. We were surprised when young people, fresh faces, started to join the labor movement and lead strikes and protests, breaking the shackles that had been tying them down. The labor movement regained its spirit because of these youth. At that time, we all wished we were Mahalla workers.”
Rashad’s reference is to series of strikes in Mahalla, Egypt’s biggest industrial town, by 27,000 employees of Misr Weaving and Spinning Company, Egypt’s largest public sector enterprise, which ended when the government responded to their demands by increasing wages and bettering working conditions. This strike led to a string of others among low-paid industries and led by blue-collar workers in the Nile Delta and elsewhere around Egypt. In 2007, another big strike followed where thousands of Misr Helwan textile workers thronged the yards of their factory day and night, occupying it, until their demands were met. The protesters were so effective that Western media labeled them “the labor militants” of Egypt.
Rashad, a family man who works two jobs to put food on the table, didn’t take part in any labor activity until he was arrested during an anti-government protest. He was among many who demonstrated on the streets against constitutional amendments passed by the Egyptian government, with the blessing of the ruling National Democratic Party, in 2007. The move was construed as a way to enable the transfer of power from President Hosni Mubarak to his son Gamal, and thus drew anger and criticism from many Egyptians.
“We protested against the amendments and I was rounded up with other protesters in March 2007. We were around 27 detainees. The prosecution ordered our release but state security was stubborn and refused to let us go. And that was the turning point for me as a labor activist”
Inside detention, Rashad met many members of current opposition groups from “far right to far left, communists, Muslim Brotherhood, almost all political forces.” He goes on describing the people he met: “There was a lot of genius behind bars. We spent the day holding discussions that all groups took part in. For example, we had a prominent novelist with us Mahmoud el-Wardani, who made a striking comparison between Osama Bin Laden and Che Guevara in how they both left their lifestyles to fight for something they believed in. There was a group of communists who really tackled the issue of labor movement and this was the first time I heard someone talk about labor rights like this, hot on the heels of the Mahalla strikes.”
Immediately following his release, Rashad was inspired to mobilize within his own company, the South Cairo Mills. That month, he organized what he terms “a major strike.”
“I had a big role, and it was the first time a workers’ strike was not directly related to wages and low incomes but to the government. It was an anti-government protest against a decision made the Social Solidarity Minister at the time who represented the cabinet of [Prime Minister Ahmed] Nazif.”
“We were not fearful, and while demonstrating we chanted slogans against the constitutional amendments,” Rashad continues. “We held the strike for three days, and the minister annulled his decision…after the strike my colleagues held a celebration for me in honor of my role leading up to the action. So my activism began among my colleagues.”
After his involvement in those protests, Rashad began to think of a “more permanent solution” to the workers’ problems. He said that the idea of implementing a higher minimum wage has been in the public consciousness since the Mahalla strikes. Furthermore, the state-appointed National Council on Wages hadn’t met to discuss this issue since 2003. “We’ve been calling them to hold a conference. Their job is to set a minimum wage in line with the rise in prices,” he says.
Rashad said that workers united under the slogan “We only want to live on the poverty line.” In other words their living standards are so low that living on the poverty line, and not below it, is an upgrade. “As workers, we wanted to embarrass the government by this slogan. Because it says we don’t want luxury, we want to live as humans.”
Rashad went on to explain how those who represented his case determined that a decent minimum wage in Egypt would be LE1200 per month.
“The World Bank has set the poverty line at US$2 per day. We took that amount and used it as a base to calculate the minimum wage. We assumed that US$2 equals roughly LE10 and that an average Egyptian family is around four people. So each family needs 40 pounds per day, multiply that by 30 and you get the amount we’re asking for now, which is LE1200 per month.”
The idea of setting a minimum wage grew stronger when, in Rashad’s words, President Mubarak killed “their dream” on May Day 2008. At the time, Mubarak had awarded workers a 30 percent salary raise, which Rashad said was a disaster because of what happened next.
“This 30 percent was like a bullet that was shot at our dreams. As the cabinet scurried to create the resources for this 30 percent, prices became five times higher than they were. So what was given to us, was taken back from us five times more,” Rashad said. “Until today, workers have this extreme fear and people are skeptical about the LE1200 minimum wage we’re calling for, saying that the government will find a way around it, even if it accepts the demand. Prices will rise and the price of a kilo of meat will go up from LE70 to LE300.”
However, Rashad said that new ruling and the additions made to Article 34 of the Labor Law linked wages to prices, “forcing the government not to raise prices in response to the rise in wages. It’s in the law, there has to be a balance between the wages and the prices. We will not the let the government repeat what it did in 2008.”
“And now after 30 March 2010 when the court ruling was passed, it hasn’t become my case any more; this right [of minimum wages] belongs to all Egyptian workers.”
When he filed his court case demanding a minimum wage, Rashad was only representing himself. It was a brave feat, according to his colleagues, considering he was directly challenging the President of Egypt, the Prime Minister and the Planning Minister in his capacity as head of the National Council on Wages.
“With the help of labor lawyer Khaled Ali, we thoroughly studied the current labor law and came to the conclusion that it was about time someone took matters into their own hands by filing a case. But Khaled doubted anyone would want to do it. I said I’ll do it and he warned me that there are repercussions.”
“I wasn’t afraid,” Rashad said. “At the time, I worked two jobs to make ends meet, and having a second job makes me feel I’m taking someone else’s opportunity at employment. It all wasn’t right. So in December 2008, I sent a warning to the Social Solidarity Minister saying that I will go to court in 15 days if the National Council of Wages does not convene to agree on a new minimum wages. Thirty days passed and nothing happened so we went through with it.”
Since then, Rashad said that he had been been constantly under pressure from Egypt’s state security and his own company. “I had received threats of arrests and of being dismissed from my company South Cairo Mills. My boss at the Mills told me very bluntly once that he has a green light from state security to fire me any time.” Rashad said that, as a challenge, he blogged about this and openly quoted his boss asking state security through his blog to justify their behavior.
“To be honest, I thought they were all empty threats until the first court session when my case was looked at. I received phone calls from South Cairo Mills colleagues telling me that I have been suspended from work,” Rashad recounted. “I thought it was a mad decision. I didn’t realize their thuggery could go so far. I soldiered on however. A labor court has annulled the suspension but I was still prevented from going back to work.”
“My family suffered because of this,” Rashad said in an afterthought. “During the [Muslim holy] month of Ramadan, while some broke their daily fast on feasts of food, we barely had enough food on the table. My kids have endured a lot as well. They have supported me nevertheless. And once the court ruling was issued a month ago, they forgot all about their pain.”
