Cairo Magazine - On the waterfront

During a protest of off-duty workers on 23 October, it was business as usual for their on-duty colleagues.

MENA

Nearly 3,000 of the 4,000 workers who keep the Port of Alexandria running congregated to protest the cancellation of their annual Eid bonus on 23 October. Contrary to reports aired on satellite stations, however, the workers did not go on strike.

“There was no strike, but rather a large workers’ protest,” said Ibrahim Abdel Razeq, a suspended member of the Alexandria Port Workers’ Union Council. “The 3,000 workers who were protesting were not on duty—the nearly 1,000 workers who were continued with their work as usual. Tugboats moved ships into port, and workers continued loading and unloading goods. There wasn’t even a slow-down.”

Unified Labor Law 12/2003 and Prime Ministerial Decree 1185/2003 forbid workers employed in “strategic enterprises” from striking. “If any of us had gone on strike, we would have been arrested,” Abdel Razeq said. “It was Ibrahim Yousef, the new administrative chief of the Port, who ordered the cancellation of our Eid bonuses. It was also Yousef who fabricated and disseminated information regarding our so-called ‘strike’ and the resulting losses of LE2 million.”

The leftist Al Tagammu was the only local newspaper to cover the protest. A spokeswoman for the Center for Trade Unions and Workers’ Services told Cairo, “The official media does not cover workers’ protests unless opposition papers bring the issue to light. If and when the official media does cover such issues, it almost always portrays workers in a negative light, describing them as troublemakers or lawbreakers.”

On 24 October, the Ministry of Transportation intervened in the dispute, striking a deal whereby workers would receive two-thirds of their traditional Eid allowances in exchange for ending the demonstrations. Four out of the 10 men who sit on the Alexandria Port Workers’ Union Council went on hunger strike from 25-26 October to protest the deal. Port security forces forcibly ejected these four and a fifth, non-unionized worker from the Union Council’s headquarters in the Port on 25 October.

Yousef, in Alexandria Port Authority Decree 1231/2005, temporarily barred the five from entering the Port and barred the four union members from participating in the union. Their names are posted at every entrance to the Port.

Abdel Razeq, calling Yousef’s actions “dictatorial,” charged the new port chief with violating the terms of its international treaty commitments to freedom of assembly. “He has neither the authority nor the jurisdiction to prevent us from working or to freeze our membership in the union.”

Adel Al Hassri, a non-unionized port employee, said, “At first I was relocated from the Port of Alexandria to the underdeveloped Port of Al Dekheila, which we port employees consider to be our Abu Ghraib, along with 15 other employees. These punitive relocations are Yousef’s attempts to bring the workers to heel. I was later suspended from working at the port for three months just because I brought in some yogurt for the protesting workers so they could break their fast. Now that I have been denied access to my work and wages for three months, how am I supposed to feed my family and three children? This is entirely unjust.”

Faced with these allegations, Ibrahim Yousef responded, “I am the chief and the primary authority in this port. I know what’s best for the Port and for its well-being. If I let the workers do whatever they feel like doing, there will be chaos. I’m sick and tired of all this harmful unionism.”

Abdel Razeq maintains union activity at the port need not be harmful. “We have three demands: recognition of our right to engage in unionism, payment in full of our Eid allowances... and the reversal of the decision to suspend all five employees from work. We sent an emergency appeal to President Mubarak requesting his intercession, but received no reply. We also sent a telegram requesting the intervention of our parent union—the Maritime Transport Workers’ Federation—but we were again let down. We have appealed to the general prosecutor and we are confident that we will prevail. But in the meantime, how are the suspended workers to feed their families?”