Business returned to normal in all departments of the Egyptian Spinning and Weaving Company on Tuesday morning, after the company’s management responded to the demands of their workers, who ended a 12-day strike on Monday.
MP for Mahalla city, Mohamed Abdo, said that the workers were happy to return to work and agreed to make-up for the company’s losses, as a result of the strike, by increasing working hours.
The General Union of Spinning and Weaving Workers will continue negotiations over the demands of the workers alongside the public business sector minister and chairman of the Holding Company for Spinning and Weaving, affiliates of the Egyptian Spinning and Weaving Company, said Abdel Ghany al-Baily, head of the Egyptian Spinning and Weaving Company’s workers’ union’s committee.
Al-Masry Al-Youm reported a meeting between the Minister of Public Business Sector, Ashraf al-Sharkawy and Abdel Fattah Ibrahim, president of the General Union of Spinning and Weaving Workers along with Chairman of the Holding Company for Spinning and Weaving, Ahmed Mostafa, on Monday, to discuss the implementation process of worker demands after they resumed work.
Ibrahim said that the union formed a task force under his chairmanship, which will be held permanently in the union headquarters for continuous communication with officials of the Holding Company for Spinning and Weaving.
Ibrahim said in a statement that he started negotiations with the Holding Company for Spinning and Weaving about the workers’ financial demands in order to reach a radical solution that ensures that the strike will not be repeated.
The first outcome of the negotiations was letters from the Holding company officials to the heads of affiliated companies, calling for an urgent meeting of its board of directors this week to prepare a detailed study on workers’ wages, Ibrahim added.
He mentioned that the study will include the names of workers whose average monthly income is less than LE1,200. The companies will send, before August 24, proposals to the Holding company’s officials on restructuring the salaries of workers, according to Ibrahim.
He announced Sunday that the workers of the Egyptian Spinning and Weaving company in Mahalla city, Gharbiya, ended their strike and would return to work.
Ibrahim said in his statement, that the workers had assigned a union to negotiate with the government on their demands and will continue meetings with government officials.
Negotiations on ending the strike began on Friday evening and continued until after midnight, said Ibrahim, stressing that he went personally to the headquarters of the company with members of the union, and convinced the workers to return to their posts.
Abdo said, on Monday, that the Egyptian Spinning and Weaving Company’s losses exceeded LE100 million.
Over 6,000 workers of the Egyptian Spinning and Weaving Company in Mahallah city, Gharbiya, began an open-ended strike on Monday August 7, demanding the ten percent bonus promised to them by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and the parliament.
They also called for the disbursement of additional long delayed bonuses.
10,000 more company workers joined the strike the following day.
Edited Translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
