Within the framework of its campaign to remove the legal barriers on the right of association, the CTUWS organized a Ramadan Breakfast Party and a round table discussion on Wednesday 24 September, 2008 at the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate. Among the personalities who attend the event which lasted for about three hours were Dr. Ahmed Hassan El Bora’i Member of ILO’s Expert Committee and Head of the Social Legislations Department of Cairo University and several trade union and labour leaders from different Egyptian governorates. In a speech delivered at this event Dr. El Bora’i emphasized the need to issue a democratic trade union act to replace the current Trade Union Act No. 35 for 1976 because it is not harmony with the current economic transformations in Egypt. The suggested law includes a group of general principles. The process of drafting the bylaws of trade union organizations should be left to their general assemblies.
•The law should stipulate the workers’ right to establish independent unions in the manner which they deem suitable and without interference from administrative bodies.
•The boards of trade union organizations must come through free and fair elections.
•The need to emphasize the legal personality of the grassroots unions (plant unions) with all competences so that they can carry out their role in negotiation, litigation, arbitration and so on.
•The law should secure the workers right to join or leave a trade union voluntarily and whenever they want.
•The law should guarantee special protection for trade union leaderships.
•The law should guarantee the freedom of individual workers vis-à-vis their trade unions.
•Trade union unity should not be imposed by law.
•A trade union organization should not be solved by an administrative decision. Instead, it may be solved by court judgment or according to a willful decision of the workers themselves.
•Control on trade union finance should be exercised by the trade unions not by the government.
The above provisions will produce true representatives of the workers capable of negotiating with employers. Dr. El Bora’i emphasized as well that the workers are not the only people who suffer from violating the right of association and that the employers are suffering from the same thing. For this reason, businessmen resorted to establish their organizations as non-governmental organizations according to the NGOs’ Law.
At the same time Miss Rahma Refaat Director of CTUWS’ Campaigns Program reviewed the International Labour Conventions which Egypt ratified particularly Convention 87 on trade union freedoms. The current Trade Union Act is in violation of this convention. She said that the statement of both the Egyptian Trade Union Federation and the Ministry of Manpower which indicate that they will amend some provisions of this law is just a maneuver to improve their image after the accusations they had to face at the last International Labour Conference. She emphasized the need for solidarity in order to secure that the amendments of the law do not go from bad to worse as usual.
ILO’s Consultant Mr. Mustafa Saeed emphasized that the current Egyptian Trade Union Act is not in harmony with the conventions which Egypt has ratifies and in particular with the Convention No. 87 of the trade union freedoms. He also noted that the law does not cope with the requirements of the Egyptian labour market in its stage of economic transformation to free economy. Nor does this law observe the structural changes of the Egyptian workers especially the decrease of labour in the industrial sector against the increase in the services and informal sectors.
CTUWS General Coordinator Mr. Kamal Abbas who facilitated the session warned against slackening the enforcement of the workers right to express themselves and to elect their representatives who can truly express their interests. The absence of real social negotiations has no other alternative but a strong eruption which could be very destructive. Mr. Kamal Abbas said that the Egyptian workers are capable of struggling for their rights and that any maneuvers to absorb the workers’ anger will be of no avail.
Leaders of the last labour protests who attended the event explained their bitter experience with the present Trade Union Act which is a stumbling block on the rod to achieve their rights. Fir this reason the Mehalla workers distrusted their pant union. Some of them had to withdraw from the trade union organization as a whole. That is why the real estate tax employees started to form a substitute general union and new plant unions in their work sites.
At the end of the session, the audience agreed to continue their efforts to draft a new trade union law in harmony with the international labour conventions which Egypt had ratified and in particular Convention No. 87 of the Trade Union Freedoms and No. 98 of the right of organization and collective bargaining. What the workers need is an independent democratic law which responds to the aspirations and the ambitions of the Egyptian working class which is expressing itself in protests throughout the previous years.
The Center for Trade Union and Workers Services (CTUWS)
25 September, 2008.
•The law should stipulate the workers’ right to establish independent unions in the manner which they deem suitable and without interference from administrative bodies.
•The boards of trade union organizations must come through free and fair elections.
•The need to emphasize the legal personality of the grassroots unions (plant unions) with all competences so that they can carry out their role in negotiation, litigation, arbitration and so on.
•The law should secure the workers right to join or leave a trade union voluntarily and whenever they want.
•The law should guarantee special protection for trade union leaderships.
•The law should guarantee the freedom of individual workers vis-à-vis their trade unions.
•Trade union unity should not be imposed by law.
•A trade union organization should not be solved by an administrative decision. Instead, it may be solved by court judgment or according to a willful decision of the workers themselves.
•Control on trade union finance should be exercised by the trade unions not by the government.
The above provisions will produce true representatives of the workers capable of negotiating with employers. Dr. El Bora’i emphasized as well that the workers are not the only people who suffer from violating the right of association and that the employers are suffering from the same thing. For this reason, businessmen resorted to establish their organizations as non-governmental organizations according to the NGOs’ Law.
At the same time Miss Rahma Refaat Director of CTUWS’ Campaigns Program reviewed the International Labour Conventions which Egypt ratified particularly Convention 87 on trade union freedoms. The current Trade Union Act is in violation of this convention. She said that the statement of both the Egyptian Trade Union Federation and the Ministry of Manpower which indicate that they will amend some provisions of this law is just a maneuver to improve their image after the accusations they had to face at the last International Labour Conference. She emphasized the need for solidarity in order to secure that the amendments of the law do not go from bad to worse as usual.
ILO’s Consultant Mr. Mustafa Saeed emphasized that the current Egyptian Trade Union Act is not in harmony with the conventions which Egypt has ratifies and in particular with the Convention No. 87 of the trade union freedoms. He also noted that the law does not cope with the requirements of the Egyptian labour market in its stage of economic transformation to free economy. Nor does this law observe the structural changes of the Egyptian workers especially the decrease of labour in the industrial sector against the increase in the services and informal sectors.
CTUWS General Coordinator Mr. Kamal Abbas who facilitated the session warned against slackening the enforcement of the workers right to express themselves and to elect their representatives who can truly express their interests. The absence of real social negotiations has no other alternative but a strong eruption which could be very destructive. Mr. Kamal Abbas said that the Egyptian workers are capable of struggling for their rights and that any maneuvers to absorb the workers’ anger will be of no avail.
Leaders of the last labour protests who attended the event explained their bitter experience with the present Trade Union Act which is a stumbling block on the rod to achieve their rights. Fir this reason the Mehalla workers distrusted their pant union. Some of them had to withdraw from the trade union organization as a whole. That is why the real estate tax employees started to form a substitute general union and new plant unions in their work sites.
At the end of the session, the audience agreed to continue their efforts to draft a new trade union law in harmony with the international labour conventions which Egypt had ratified and in particular Convention No. 87 of the Trade Union Freedoms and No. 98 of the right of organization and collective bargaining. What the workers need is an independent democratic law which responds to the aspirations and the ambitions of the Egyptian working class which is expressing itself in protests throughout the previous years.
The Center for Trade Union and Workers Services (CTUWS)
25 September, 2008.
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