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Serious Worrying Developments
Draft Law Criminalizes the Right to Strike
In a serious and worrying development the Egyptian cabinet of ministers approved today, March 23, 2011 a draft law which, according to newspapers and media, criminalizes some cases of sit-ins, protests and gatherings which hamper work in public or private paces. The draft law penalizes those who incite ins, protests and gatherings with imprisonment and heavy penalties which reach EGP 500 000. It is decided to submit the draft law to the Supreme Military Council for final consideration and adoption.
Although the complete suggested draft law which the Cabinet approved is not made available, it is understood from the news from the Cabinet and statements of the Deputy Prime Minister that it is a draft law amending the Egyptian Penal Law to criminalize the aforementioned acts or to make penalties heavier. Whatever the provisions may be, it is a legal disaster by all means. It is a return to penalize the right to go in strike.
The Egyptian workers have struggled for decades to maintain the right to strike. They paid the price when they were imprisoned, transferred or killed. There were martyrs in the Iron and Steel strikes of 19989, Kafr el Dawar strikes of 1994 and Mehalla el Kobra strikes of 2008.
Article 124 of the Egyptian Penal Law which criminalizes the right to strike is a witness that the regime was reactionary and had the fingerprints of the 19th century. It violated the international labour conventions which are ratified by the Egyptian government and put in the waste basket.
Article 124 of the Egyptian Penal Law which is not different from the suggested draft law was a curse in the history of the regime in Egypt. When the railway workers went in strike in 1986 Mubarak’s regime asked to apply that infamous Article against them. But the Egyptian judiciary ruled that Article 124 is automatically annulled since the date of ratification by the government of Egypt on the International Convention of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
The government was obliged to abide by the ILO Conventions and to confirm in the Labour Law No. 12/2003 the workers right to strike. In spite of the restrictions which made the application of the right to strike next to impossible, the labour movement utilized this right extensively during the last four years.
The Egyptian workers did not start to move after January 25, 2011. On the contrary, they were on the vanguard of the revolution until it reached its summit and would not stop until the realization of the workers demands or at least the workers are assured that their demands are on the way for achievement.
It was unfortunate that the Egyptian transitional governments after the revolution could not read the Egyptian labour movement or recognize its features and fair demands. Their stance was not much different from that of the regime of Mubarak and exceeded it when they called our strikes “categorical movements which hinder transformation to the required democratic society”. It is worrying that democracy is summarized in parliamentary and presidential elections under the supervision of the judiciary and opening towards the Muslim Brethren while they disregard the liberation of the civil society and the workers’ rights to develop their stances and negotiate for gaining their rights.
The obligations announced by the supreme military council since the first day it took authority do not stop at observing political and economic agreements. But they include human rights and ILO conventions which are contravened by the suggested draft law which criminalizes strikes under any justification.
The Center for Trade Union and Workers Services “CTUWS” and the Egyptian Federation of independent Trade Unions are calling since 14th February to develop a suitable mechanism for negotiations and reaching time frames for resolving the essential problems of the workers (especially those elated to wages and informal workers) and resolving conflicts in connection with work conditions and labour relations.
We are undoubtedly aware of the difficulties of the transit period with its serious risks and critical economic conditions. We are also aware of the necessity to have sufficient stability and better economic conditions. We trust that getting out of the bottle neck will lead to a better future and greater horizons.
But overcoming the serious conditions of our society before the revolution of 25 January and confronting the transitional period with its difficulties cannot be achieved without the participation of all the social parties in serious negotiations until a clear cut map of the road is reached.
We do not deny the difficulties that the government of Dr. Essam Sharaf has confronted since its first day, and we do not deny the efforts of the Minister of Manpower and the Minister of Finance in the dialogue and negotiations with workers in some sites and their action to fulfill their just rights.
But the government of Egypt is still far from dealing with the Egyptian workers as citizens and partners in decision making who have the right to access knowledge and discuss their conditions.
Real democracy does not stop at the level of representation .. it is not a parliament or a consultative council. It is the independent unions and the civil society organizations which express the real demands of the workers and lobby for their realization. They are active democratic mechanisms for negotiations, participation in decision making and social supervision of the social resources which were being stolen for many years in the absence of democracy.
Issuing a law to criminalize strikes now, whatever the justifications might be or even if it was temporary, will be unfair to the revolution which about 1000 Egyptians paid their lives for it. It is not an acceptable or useful solution to the current problems. On the contrary, it will widen the gap which started to appear between the people and the authorities which are running the country at the present time.
We call upon the government of Egypt to withdraw the suggested draft law and call upon the Supreme Military Council to refrain from issuing it. Instead, we call for social dialogue by all the political powers, civil society organizations, workers representatives and employers representatives. We also call for the development of an active and regular mechanism for societal negotiations.
Wednesday Marsch 23, 2011
The Center for Trade Union and Workers Services “CTUWS”, and
The Egyptian Independent Trade Union Federation
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The Center for Trade Union & Workers’ Services (CTUWS) – Honored the French Republic’s Human Rights Prize- is an Egyptian non-governmental organization established in March 1990 by some labor leaders and activists guided by their experience in the Egyptian labor movement. They vowed to meet the urgent need to form an independent organization that advances and supports the needs of workers in a democratic manner, provide direct support and services to the workers and fill the void created by the “official” trade union organization which failed to achieve its fundamental obligations.
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