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A news bulletin
On LCHR's report:

"The laborers' protestations between the market anarchy and the role of the
syndicates' committees"



          This report discusses the laborers' conditions in Egypt during the
second half of the year 2000, underlying the "Privatization" policies and
the roles played by the syndicates' committees (SCs) in a number of
factories. It is divided into four sections:

First: "Privatization and Market Forces in Egypt":

This section exposes what can be called the "IMF Prescriptions", structural
adjustment and reform policies, the role of the Private Section (Pr.S) and
the mechanisms for mobilizing markets. It also discusses the reasons why the
neo liberals are marketing the issue of raising efficiency and quality, as
well as affording accumulation and new funding sources for the infra
structure projects. In addition, it exposes the views of the Social
Democratic thinkers, who advocate "The Third Way".

The report goes on to display the Egyptian experience in applying
privatization and market's mechanisms, from the 1970's till today, in three
stages:

                    ?       Preparing the public opinion and crystallizing
the economic and administrative thinking for the privatization process. This
stage initiated in the Mid 70s and proceeded till the Early 80s, and was
mainly featured with ultimate chaos in the Egyptian Market.

                    ?       Restructuring the Public Sector (Pub.S), which
extended precisely from 1982 till 1992. The main steps towards applying this
policy included:

                                             1.
Supporting the Pub.S units & improving the net of services, which embraced
more than 70% of the total investments (the total investments at the time
exceeded 80 billion Egyptian pounds).

                                             2.                      Re
organizing the administrative and legislative aspects of the Pub.S units. To
implement this step, the Business Sector law no. 203/1991 was issued.

                                             3.
Liberalizing the Pub.S units from their restricting by-laws.

                                             4.                     Adapting
and restructuring the Business Sector (BS) companies. (I.e. repaying the
debts of the losing companies, evicting laborers with early retirement, etc.



                    ?       The third stage is that of the harvest. The
report introduces the effects of the privatization policies on local &
international markets, on the investors and on the economic and social
rights especially those of the laborers. For instance, 71,000 laborers were
released through early retirement by the end of 1998, 122 companies were
sold completely -38 through stock, 24 in the form of assets and shares to a
major investor, 30 in the form of assets and another 30 as shares to the
laborers' Federation. Some other companies were either sold partly or were
rented, so that the total number reached 165 companies with a cost of 15,622
billion LE. By tracing the issue historically, from 1992 till 1998, we can
see the range of losses and damages of the majority of these sold companies.

That raises a question: Why in the first place did the state improve and
reform these companies if they were intended to be sold? The answer of this
question is an evidence of the random, unorganized application of these
policies from the state, which causes yet more deterioration to the Egyptian
economic system.



Second: "The Role of the Syndicates' Committees-SCs":


          This section is attributed to the attitude that some SCs take
towards laborers whose rights are violated due to early retirement,
decreasing wages and even firing with no legal cause. The chapter points out
to the different attitudes taken by the SCs in various companies, taking six
companies from the Pub.S as a model to examine their role. The companies
are:

     ?       Misr-Helwan for spinning and weaving.

     ?       The Egyptian Steel co.

     ?       The Nile for ready garments.

     ?       "Sigorat"

     ?       Nasr for basic chemicals.

     ?       Thermals co. in Tebbin.

For instance, in the last mentioned company, the SC took defensive attitudes
towards the arbitrary practices performed to apply privatization. It reached
the extent that the head of the syndicates of that company refused to sign
the application form to have his early retirement money unless when he was
sure that all the workers took theirs.

Meanwhile, the SC in Sigorat became a tool in the hands of the arbitrary
administration, to the extent of helping the administration to implement
these practices upon the poor laborers.



Third: "The Laborers' Protestations and Strikes"
          It discusses the protestation forms that the laborers made in the
Pub.S, Pr.S and the BS. The report shows that these protestations are no
longer limited to the laborers, but it extended to employees, teachers,
doctors, etc. Also, these protestations took different forms including, 66
protestations, 42 strikes and 24 public gatherings. In addition, many
lawsuits were filed, 6000 complaints were presented before governmental
administrations, etc. The report returns the reason behind the increase in
these protestations lately to the recent economic crisis that Egypt
undergoes such as the shortage in liquid money, the increase in the price of
the dollar, etc, and other legislative factors that restrict the right to
protest.

          This section emphasized the great role of the Pr.S laborers, which
started to strengthen in spite of the lack of experience of the workers. The
report recorded 26 protestations, including 16 strikes and 10
demonstrations. The reason behind these protestations was mainly collective
releasing.

          The laborers' protestations of the BS, throughout the second half
of the year 2000, were represented in 18 strikes and 8 demonstrations. The
reasons were mainly low wages. Yet, there are predictions that the
protestations will rise in this sector due to the application of the Unified
Labor Law, as well as privatizing the BS.

          According to the Pub.S, there is a noticeable decrease in
collective protestations and an increase in individual ones. During the
second half of the year 2000, there were 8 strikes and 6 demonstrations in
this sector. Generally speaking, there is a rise in the movement of the
laborers' protestations, the thing that reflects the extent of violation
that they undergo day after day.



Fourth: Recommendations:



     ?       The importance of discussing the privatization program on the
widest scale possible from all the bodies concerned, so as to find an
Egyptian economic alternative that matches the international development.

     ?       To permit the public information on the problems facing the
application of privatization, as well as the future objectives, so that the
vision is clear before all concerned parties. In addition, urging all the
political powers and the laborers' leaders to participate in this.

     ?       Finding economic collective alternatives, such as giving more
consideration to micro credit projects that might contribute in solving the
economic problems of the laborers who were obliged to take early
retirements.

     ?       Reconsidering the program of privatizing governmental
administrations, as well as monitoring their by-laws to protect the rights
of the laborers there.

     ?       Liberalizing syndicates from the General Federation's hold.

     ?       Asserting the guarantees stated in the recent legislation in
the three sectors, especially after issuing the unified labor law.

     ?       Permitting the right to strike and protest.





We address this report to all the political parties, forces and labor
syndicates to fight against this assault against the laborers' rights.



Towards issuing a new law that secures the laborer's rights against any
violation.

Issued in: 30th April, 2001.

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Land Center for Human Rights.

Address: 122 Gala' St. Ramsis square, Cairo, Egypt.

Tel/Fax: 202-57 50 470

E-mail: lchr@thewayout.net,

lchr96@lchr96.org,

lchr@lchr96.org.

Website: <<www.lchr96.org>>