17 January, 2009

Mahalla sit-in continues - workers threatened with dismissal


The sit-in of independent union leaders in Mahalla continues, now entering the eight day. I just spoke to one of them, who accused the state-controlled union to conspire with the management to fire those who have taken part in the sit-in. Previously during the week, negotiations have taken place between the workers and local union officials, but the latter have consistently demanded that the workers end their sit-in before the union can take any measures on their behalf...

Here is a report from el-badeel, that also mentions that 800 workers at "al-swidi lil-kabalaat" (Swedish Cables?) ended a strike after being promised a raise in wages within two months. Does anyone know anything about this company? I mean, is it really Swedish...?

Pic above: Some of the workers during the third day of the sit-in.

3 comments:

  1. No, Egyptian. It is a family that goes by that name. Would be interesting to find the etymology, though.

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  2. Ah... thank you for the clarification. Interesting name...

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  3. Swidi doesn't only mean from Sweden. Swidi is Arabic for calisthenics.

    Oh, well.

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