‘No profits, no incentive payments’

Contemplating the loud debate going on in Egypt over the current post-revolutionary transitional period, one can sense the possible emergence of a second revolution. If this were to occur, some people believe it would of the impoverished while others think it would be of the workers, who long suffered neglect by successive governments prior to the January revolution.

It is true that the January revolution was preceded by many labour strikes, the most famous of which occurred on April 6, 2008, notably in the Egyptian textiles centre of Mahalla.

Tens of thousands of workers organised wide demonstrations and strikes to attempt to force the then government to respond to their financial demands. There are indications a wider labour strike might be held, which would cover most " if not all " the factories of Egypt.

Some analysts have attributed the workers' motives for holding these strikes as blackmailing the incumbent government in order to obtain further financial gains, together with some labour leaders attempting to gain fame and workers' support prior to the trades union elections.

One of the worker's many demands is to obtain the two-month incentive grant first offered to the workers last year, according to the decision of the former Minister of Investment Mohie Eddin el-Gharib, as a result of the profits obtained by public sector companies.

Although most of the factories failed to be profitable this year, because of the critical condition the country is passing through since the revolution, the workers insist on getting the incentive grant this year too.

"We have been accustomed to any financial allocations, if paid once, becoming a regular annual payment," said Saeed el-Gohari, the Chairman of the Spinning and Weaving Workers Union.

Quoted by Al-Mossawar Arabic magazine, el-Gohari justified the workers demands by referring to all the press comment on the funds looted by the former regime. "So they seek to be paid all their financial rights immediately. They are being encouraged by some workers' candidates who are encouraging them to increase their demands to unprecedented levels."

In this regard, el-Gohari warns against any delay in paying the workers these two months incentive, whose costs he estimated at no less than LE one billion.