The newly formed Real Estate Tax Authority independent union is being undermined by the government and the official union federation, says RETA Chairman Kamal Abu Eita.
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RETA Chairman Kamal Abu Eita says the government and government-affiliated unions are undermining the independent union movement in Egypt. |
In a June 30, 2009, letter to the International Trade Union Confederation, Abu Eita accused the government-affiliated Egyptian Trade Union Federation (ETUF) and National Trade Union of Banks, Insurance, and Financial Affairs (NTUBIFA) of requesting the government not to deal with RETA. He said that although RETA’s 37,000 members have resigned from NTUBIFA, union dues are still being deducted from their paychecks “with the cooperation of the administrative bodies.” ETUF and NTUBIFA have even filed corruption charges against RETA, claiming that the new union is collecting dues “without official permission” — an accusation without merit, according to Abu Eita, because all of RETA’s activities are overseen by the General Assembly as stipulated by union regulations. Worse still, RETA leaders have been physically attacked and beaten by NTUBIFA members.
Abu Eita also accused the government itself of reneging on agreements made following a December 2007 strike. He said that many RETA members have been harassed, intimidated, referred for investigation, and arbitrarily transferred to remote job sites.
On July 30, hundreds of RETA members from all over the country rallied in front of the Ministry of Finance in Cairo, calling on the government to establish a union retirement fund for approximately 50,000 workers. The fund, which consists of a lump sum payment for each worker upon retirement, is partially financed by monthly contributions from the workers themselves. Union members learned when they went to receive the official decision to establish the fund that it had been withheld, reportedly at the urging of ETUF President Hussein Megawar. A day later, the government restored the fund.
These actions may be indicative of Egypt’s harshness toward its burgeoning independent union movement. On July 1, security guards at Cairo airport stopped Kamal Abbas, General Coordinator of the Center for Trade Union and Workers Services, as he was leaving for an ITUC meeting in Brussels. Authorities held his passport for more than an hour before allowing him to catch his flight. It was the first time in three years that Abbas and the CTUWS, a Solidarity Center partner, had been targeted in this manner. In April 2007, against a backdrop of labor unrest and more than 200 strikes by garment workers, the government ordered CTUWS shut down. A court order overturned the government’s action, and CTUWS reopened on June 19, 2008.
"The Center for Trade Union and Workers Services . . . announces its full support to the Real Estate Tax Employees and their independent union," said the CTUWS in a press release. "The CTUWS is confident that they are capable of resisting these pressures and that they will materialize their right to social protection."
History Made as Egyptian Public Workers Form First Independent Union. In a historic move for the Egyptian labor movement, the 27,000-member Real Estate Tax Authority Union will become Egypt’s first independent union, reports the Center for Trade Union and Worker Services, a Solidarity Center partner.
Court Decision Restores Egyptian Worker Rights Organization. A decision by the Egyptian Administrative Court has overturned the government’s refusal to allow operation of the Center for Trade Union and Workers Services, a Solidarity Center partner.
Wage-Price Differential Driving Grassroots Union Movement, Say Egyptian Labor Activists. The main engine behind the new independent union movement in Egypt is the huge difference between wages and prices of consumer goods and services in addition to the ever-growing gap between rich and poor, members of an Egyptian labor delegation told the Solidarity Center.
Egyptian Labor-Support Organization Banned After Strike Actions. Veteran labor communicator Ray Abernathy's June 26, 2007, post about CTUWS on the AFL-CIO blog. Abernathy traveled to Egypt, where he met with workers to hear their struggles for justice.
