Security forces use tear gas to disperse sit-in at Universal Appliances spurred by worker suicide

Central Security Forces used tear gas to disperse a sit-in staged by thousands of workers at the 6th of October City industrial zone site of the Universal for Electrical Appliances on Tuesday morning.

Universal workers took strike action on Tuesday for the third time in recent months after a deterioration in workers’ living conditions propelled by months of overdue wages pushed one staff member to take his own life in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Assem Afify, who worked in the oven factory, suffered financial difficulties due to the delayed payouts and had borrowed money from his colleagues and friends for months, several Universal workers told Mada Masr on condition of anonymity.

On Monday night, he sent text messages to colleagues that had loaned him money asking that they forgive him for not being able to repay his debt. The next morning, as he and other staff members awaited a shuttle to transport them to work from Monufiya, Afify threw himself in front of a car passing at speed.

Several workers at the factory told Mada Masr that they plan to continue the strike action regardless of the sit-in’s dispersal.

Afify’s is not the first death among Universal workers to be precipitated by the toll of the company’s insolvency. Since 2019, three other workers have taken their own lives, while in September 2021, a fourth suffered a heart attack while working an overtime shift amid financial pressure.

Laborers at the electrical devices manufacturer organized at least two sit-ins over 2021 to protest the delay in wage payouts, which, despite repeated promises made by company management and the intervention of the Manpower Ministry, are yet to be paid out according to an agreed schedule. To date, only a third of workers have been paid, and they have received only half of the amount that they are owed, several workers said.

The wage crisis at Universal dates back to 2019, when the Manpower Ministry responded to a worker strike at the time by agreeing to pay half the value of workers’ salaries from its own treasury for a six-month period.

In July 2021, management stopped paying out salaries altogether. Hassan Mabrouk, the company’s general manager, told Mada Masr at the time that the company’s sales had declined since the devaluation of the Egyptian pound in 2016.