Thousands of workers strike for higher wages at Ghazl al-Mahalla factory

Workers at Ghazl al-Mahalla are on strike for higher wages and fairer bonuses.

Around 7,000 workers gathered on Saturday morning in the central square of the Ghazl al-Mahalla factory complex in strike action that has persisted for three days already.

They are demanding that their daily meal allowance be increased to LE30, raising a chant that the amount barely covers “the price of a liter of milk.”

They are also asking for higher wages to be implemented, pointing to a recent wage increase for the public sector based on instructions by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi amid an inflationary wave that has pushed up the cost of living nationwide. In other chants, workers called, “where is Sisi’s decision?”

The publicly owned mega factory employs tens of thousands of people at spinning, textiles and medical cotton factories, as well as a power station over a huge area of land in Mahalla al-Kubra, Gharbiya Governorate.

Until Sunday, the workers’ negotiations with the parent company have failed, said the Center for Trade Unions and Workers Services in a statement issued on Saturday night. The meeting was attended by a representative of the presidency, the Labor Office, the Trade and Industry Ministry, and the president of the General Syndicate of Spinning and Weaving.

Several men who work at the company were also being held on Saturday by the National Security Agency after they were summoned for questioning by the security body along with a number of women workers, said CTUWS, without specifying the number detained.

Workers launched the strike on Thursday, they told Mada Masr, beginning in clothing factories predominantly staffed by women, who have historically been at the forefront of several famous strikes in the company.

Hanan*, a supervisor at a clothing factory, told Mada Masr that the workers in her building started chanting slogans, ultimately halting work as the chants spread from one factory to another.

At the same time, security personnel sealed off exits to prevent the women from spilling into the complex’s central square, known as Talaat Harb Square. This security measure was also enforced at the power station, according to Abdullah* who works there.

Security personnel unlocked the factory gates around 3 pm on Thursday, half an hour before the end of the morning shift, to ensure that workers exited the premises and did not gather inside, Hanan said.

Workers at the company described low wages driving dissatisfaction.

The cost of living has risen across the country, with inflation standing at over 30 percent throughout 2023. A recent "presidential package" set to be rolled out starting in March includes a minimum wage increase for the public sector from LE4,000 to LE6,000 per month, with increments ranging from LE1,000 to LE1,200 across different job categories.

Though it is state-owned, the Misr Spinning and Weaving Company, which owns Ghazl al-Mahalla, falls outside the scope of the presidential package, a Finance Ministry source previously told Mada Masr.

The company’s salaries are guided instead by decisions from the National Wages Council, which raised the private sector’s minimum wage to LE3,500 last October.

But the October raise did little to counter the reduction in purchasing power brought about by inflation. After more than 25 years of service, Abdel Aziz* told Mada Masr that his total take-home earnings are no more than LE4,000 per month. The quantity is equivalent to around US$130 at the official exchange rate, or around US$80 at the parallel market rate at the time of writing. 

Abdullah said that his salary stands at LE4,200 after 33 years with the company. Hanan, who is approaching retirement, receives a salary of around LE6,200.

Several labor sources at the company said that days before the strike, the Gharbiya governor had paid a series of visits to inspect a convoy that provides subsidized goods for the company's workers.

Abdel Aziz added that during the governor’s visit on Wednesday, he had inspected a medical convoy catering to the workers, and “one worker told the governor that his salary does not exceed LE3500.”

Workers are now demanding that the minimum wage be raised to LE6,000, with wage increments according to seniority as well as a reduction in their tax allocations, according to a CTUWS statement published on Saturday.

They are also asking for their daily meal allowance to be increased to LE30, or a total of LE900 per month instead of the current LE210 per month, with a chant circulating at the strike stating that the amount barely covers “the price of a liter of milk.”

The Saturday CTUWS statement noted that members of the company’s official union committee, which is affiliated with the state-aligned Egyptian Trade Union Federation, tried to dissuade workers from striking and intimidate them, but they were expelled from the square. 

A prominent figure in the company’s official union committee told Mada Masr on Thursday, on condition of anonymity, that the committee “prefers negotiation over strike but supports the workers’ demands.”

Ghazl al-Mahalla acted as a catalyst in late 2006 for a resurgence of nationwide labor action, when a strike of tens of thousands of workers at the factory reverberated in a movement of similar strikes at other factories across the country.

*Upon their request, Mada Masr used pseudonyms for all sources.