Egyptian pensioners organize union

In addition to the mass protests in Egypt, another arena for demanding rights and fighting corruption has been Egypt’s independent trade union movement. This movement expressed its solidarity with the demonstrators, and added its clout to the struggle to bring down Hosni Mubarak five months ago.

Egypt’s independent trade unions joined together into a confederation on Jan. 30. Despite the outlawing of strikes by the ruling military regime in March, this union movement continues to grow. For example, while this reporter was in Cairo in June, the pilots of the national airline, Egypt Air, formed an independent union to fight for workers’ rights and also to target graft and corruption in the airline.

This reporter interviewed Shoukry Azer, a 74-year-old retired physician and a founder of the recently-created independent Union of Egyptian Pensioners. Its membership is Egyptians 60 years of age and older who receive government pensions. Azer has also fought against privatizing the social security and health insurance systems.

Azer explained that it was necessary to form the union because the Egyptian government “has taken 435 billion Egyptian pounds ($73 billion) from pensioners over the last 30 years.” Mubarak did this openly and blatantly, by “refusing to continue the Ministry of Pension,” Azer said, and by moving the pension money into the treasury of the Ministry of Finance. Azer called this move “unconstitutional.” The end result is that Egyptian pensioners are being short-changed by $73 billion of much-needed money.

A person used to die in Egypt before they retired at 60 years or soon after. But that is no longer the case. Life expectancy is now over 72 years. In Egypt, the elderly are the fastest growing segment of the population, according to Egypt Today. (Nov. 16, 2009) In 1986, 5 percent of Egyptians were age 60 and older. In 2015 they’ll make up 11 percent of the population and in 2050, over one-fifth.

Additionally, as of June 2008, 84 percent of all seniors 60 years and older had dependents, usually supporting between two and four people, including themselves, according to Egypt Today. Many of these dependents are unemployed adult children. For these people, the pension system, which pays retirees 60 to 600 Egyptian pounds or LE ($10 to $100) a month, is their only source of funds.