Sweatshirt Mahalla Worker Power (Egypt 2007)

This month we are turning our focus to a historic illegal wildcat strike, which took place at the MISR Spinning and Weaving Company, one of Egypt’s biggest state-owned textile factories, located in Mahalla el-Kubra, north of Cairo. Tens of thousands of textile workers participated in the strike putting their collective power to work and eventually winning all their demands. The workers, faced with poverty-level wages, went on strike after the government only paid them a fraction in bonuses they deserved under profit sharing agreements. The workers staged a six-day sit in at the factory which employs 27,000 people and exports textiles all over the world. Factory managers said the strike cost them millions of dollars a day. The strikers demanded better working conditions and benefits as well as higher wages, with some receiving as little as 31 Euro a month.

The strike at MISR came amid a wave of labour unrest that swept the country as workers demanded higher wages and bonuses and expressed fear over plans to sell off state-owned enterprises.

The strike also came at a time in which the government statistics bureau warned that the price of basic food had risen by 48 percent over the course of one year.

Apart from the wage related demands that the workers won, it was also agreed that no striker will be victimized for having taken part in the industrial action, and that strike days are to be considered paid holidays, whose costs will be incurred by the company. The strike ended on September 29^th, 2007.

Design by Henry Nonkonform based out of Eisenhüttenstadt. It depicts the mosaic from the impressive mural at the entrance to the city of Mahalla el-Kubra. 

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