Sunday, May 1, 2011

Happy Labor Day

Happy Labor Day to all of you , happy labor day to all the blue and white collars in Egypt alike.
No one can deny or forget the role the workers of Mahalla played in stepping the first milestone towards in the revolution on the 6th April 2008 strike , no one can deny or forget the role of that industrial city in our revolution.
This is a very special day this year , aside from the fact that this is the first labor day after the revolution but it is also the first labor day without a president and without the usual we want annual raise MR. President !!
Today a group of Egyptian workers celebrated the occasion at the Tahrir square along with socialist and communist activists. PM Essam Sharaf did not attend the celebration held by the official labor union nor the celebration at Tahrir , of course he got enough criticism for the day still he recorded a speech dedicated to Egypt’s workers that was aired today.
Essam Sharaf’s word on the occasion of Labor Day
The Egyptian workers have got needs that we all must work to achieve in order to push this productivity wheel everybody is speaking about nowadays. The most famous two needs or demands are :
  • The minimum level of wages , already the government promised to raise the minimum level of wages.
  • The right to form unions to defend rights, which I believe has become easier than before.
My major is business administration and from management perspective I will tell that you get productivity from the employee or the worker , when the worker’s basic needs are satisfied. The basic needs of worker and also public sector employees in Egypt are not satisfied  with the ridiculously inhuman wages and salaries. According to the administrative court the Egyptian government must raise the minimum level of wages and salaries to LE 1200. The previous cabinet has ignored the court order as usual while the current one is searching for ways to raise the wages and at the same time not to face bankruptcy. You must know that the Mubarak regime has brought us really down when it come to finance , all bets were on hunger revolution not political revolution calling for social justice.
Needless to say we can save a lot of money in the current time if  we refine our governmental expenditure , if we stop the useless and unneeded projects of the previous regime at least for some time like for instance the new Egyptian museum Zahi Hawas is building and will cost the country now $ 600 million !? It is a big challenge and I believe the government can achieve it opens a dialogue with economists and finance experts in the country.
Anyhow happy labor day to Egypt’s workers who suffered a lot during the Mubarak era and next year the Egypt’s blue and white collars will have once again their lost rights.
P.S Special happy labor day to the Tanta flux factory workers and Mahalla cotton and textile factories workers for their inspiring role during the Mubarak era.

3 comments:

  1. Improving worker's productivity will require better training and generating higher value job opportunities. It would be great if we could restore pride in skill and craftsmanship.
    I don't think that strategically we want to compete with other 3rd world countries in the unskilled labor market. I wonder if the new independent unions can play a role in that regard.

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  2. A minimum wage needs to give enough to live on, and needs to be updated regularly - a living wage. There needs to be some way of keep a check on the difference between lower and higher wage levels. The gap has widened in UK, having a detrimental effect on lower wage earners. We can't afford to allow a privileged few to run to away with the money.

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  3. i am really pessimistic about the future of the working class. the ratio between the salaries of a highest ranked officer and a worker keeps rising and i can not see an easy way to stop this progress

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