Hundreds of workers at the Alexandria branch of Pirelli, an Italian tire manufacturer, and environmental monitoring unit workers in Cairo gathered in front of the Presidential Palace in Heliopolis on Tuesday to meet President Mohamed Morsy to address their grievances.
The workers complained that they have not been paid their salaries for two months and that five of them were arbitrarily fired. They asked for a delegation of them to meet Morsy.
The protesters chanted, saying, “President Morsy said it strongly, he will protect workers’ rights,” “ Where are you Sadat? Workers now have no rights,” and “O, the workers chant, ‘Where have your days gone, Nasser?’”.
Ashraf al-Gazzar, a labor leader at Pirelli, said the workers decided to stage their protest at the Presidential Palace after the Manpower Minister and the Italian Consulate failed to help. He added that they were told that the head office in Italy threatened to close down the factory and to lay off the workers if they continued to make such demands.
Meanwhile, environment workers called for receiving the same financial treatment as public transportation and cleaning workers.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
