Egypt's public transport workers strike for 3rd day

Egypt’s public transport workers continued a third day of strikes for higher wages and conditions on buses.

All 28 garages in Greater Cairo are currently on strike, taking a toll on daily revenues worth some LE800,000 ($115,000) for the Public Transport Authority, Al-Ahram Arabic reported on Sunday.

Early on Monday, the finance minister approved allocating some LE15.2 million for the state's Public Transport Authority to meet its demands. Workers rejected the offer.

"We want to approach social justice and that means inclusion in the LE1200 ($172) minimum wage scheme or raising our yearly bounces to reach 7 percent like the employees of the state's independent economic authorities," Ali Fattouh the head of workers' syndicate at PTA, told Ahram Online.

Public transport 42,000 workers receive between LE600 ($86) and LE1400 ($200) in wages.

Fattouh said workers want to improve the poor state of the authority’s fleet of 4,700 buses.