Kiriazi workers resume striking after company disregards their demands

Workers at Kiriazi Company continued on Monday the fourth day of an ongoing strike, demanding that managers at the home appliance manufacturing firm come clean on promises to raise worker wages, bonuses and benefits, according to several labor sources in the company who spoke to Mada Masr on condition of anonymity.

Their protest against stagnating pay rates comes as households nationwide struggle under a wave of inflation that reached a record rate of 33.6 percent in March, the worst in five and a half years.

Though the government has made nominal changes to labor freedoms and protections over recent years to secure Egypt’s removal from the International Labor Organization’s blacklist, police arrested Kiriazi workers in February when they went on strike with the same demands.

Managers failed to fulfill their promises to implement an annual wage raise and increase the rate at which profit shares are disbursed to employees, according to the Kiriazi labor sources, who said that workers are also demanding that the company resume paying workers’ private health insurance subscriptions, which it stopped supplying years ago.

One laborer told Mada Masr he has worked in the company for nine years and currently gets paid close to LE3,100 (just over US$100 at present), less than the private sector minimum wage. Describing the workers’ demands, he said, “Management promised months ago that if we stopped striking, they would raise the share of the annual profits to the equivalent of a full extra month's salary.”

After management failed to take action on the profit shares, he continued, “we expected them to back down from implementing the rest of the promises, which included reinstating private health insurance, raising the annual allowance to LE1,000 [which only actually increased to LE500], and adopting a severance pay system since it is not included post-retirement."

Another worker, who has been with Kiriazi for 15 years and gets paid close to LE4,500 (around $145 at present), noted that there are additional issues around workers’ safety.

“After the company’s transportation service was suspended, two of the company's workers were injured on Thursday crossing the highway near the company's headquarters after arriving via public transport.”

The company's management has responded to the Wednesday strike announcement with frustration and threats. “They called an end to the working day very early, at 10.30 am, and forced us to leave,” said the first laborer, adding that “they stopped the passage of company cars to transport workers, forcing us to come to the company on Thursday and Friday at our own expense.” Management has also posted a notice telling workers that if the strike is not called off, Eid bonuses, worth around half a month’s salary, will not be paid out, and that wages for the strike days will be deducted.

The right to organize and strike in Egypt is highly regulated, whereby only authorized unions can hold strikes, according to the 2017 union law.

Kiriazi does not have a union committee, said the second laborer, explaining that the workers organize together to reach consensus without a union. It makes the question of how the company will respond to the strike ambiguous.

“The police have taken a neutral position on the strike so far, provided that no organized strikes take place outside of the company’s walls,” said the first worker, further explaining that thus far workers are gathering only at Kiriazi factories in Obour City, while workers in the tenth of Ramadan branch are not participating.

Yet during the February strike at Kiriazi, police detained over 20 workers before their eventual release.

Yet under the pressure of the economic crisis, Kiriazi workers said they are resolved to press for fairer rates of pay, telling Mada Masr that they “settled on continuing the strike again today.”