Thousands of Mahalla textile workers are still on strike (Photo: Al-Ahram)
Thousands of textile workers at the state-owned Mahalla Misr Spinning and Weaving Company – Egypt's largest textiles manufacturer – continued their ongoing labour strike for the second day running on Monday.
Striking workers, who have temporarily brought the company’s production to a halt, are demanding the dismissal of the company's upper management and chairman.
Workers at the company are seeking the removal of the chairman of the Spinning and Weaving Holding Company, Fouad Abdel-Alim.
Abdel-Alim was the chairman of the Mahalla Company for three years, and workers stated that he was not efficient, squandering millions of pounds in his time there.
On Sunday morning, workers at the firm's industrial complex in the town of Mahalla El-Kobra in Egypt’s Nile Delta Gharbiya Governorate issued a list of demands, which included a greater share of 2011 company profits and larger end-of-service bonuses.
Company employees currently receive profit shares equivalent to four and a half months of their basic salaries. When they leave the company’s employment, they receive a bulk payment equivalent to two months of pay for every year with the company. Protesters demand this be increased to three months.
Workers say they have informed the relevant authorities of their demands – including Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, who has established offices specifically mandated with hearing citizens' grievances – albeit to no avail. They say they will maintain their strike action until all their demands are met.
On Monday, workers chanted slogans against company CEO Fouad Abdel-Alim.
Mahalla Misr Spinning and Weaving, which employs some 24,000 people, has seen a series of strikes over similar demands within the last 18 months.
Strikes by Mahalla’s textile workers in 2006 and 2008 are widely seen as having partially set the stage for last year’s Tahrir Square uprising, which culminated in the ouster of Egypt’s longstanding president Hosni Mubarak.
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