Visa källa för General Federation of Trade Unions

Millions of Egyptian workers are to elect on 20 August their representatives for the unions’ pyramid-like structure. Just to explain briefly: At the bottom, there are el-Legan el-Masna3eya (Factories’ Committees). Those voted into the committees get the chance to run for el-Niqabbat el-3amma (General Unions). Then members of the General Unions form the leadership of the trade unions’ body, al-Itihad el-3am li-Niqabat 3ommal Masr (The General Federation of Egyptian Trade Unions).

The regime depends strongly on the union bureaucracy for mobilization. Those buses that were shipping in the “NDP supporters” to electoral posts last November to rig the vote in the provinces, were carrying no ones but poor public sector workers, mobilized by the union bureaucrats, who are closely affiliated with the NDP.
The “mass demos” that the NDP mobilizes, whether to cheer the president’s visit to some town, or to protest the Iraq war in the Cairo staduim in February 2003, where also mobilized by the unions.
In the past, the General Federation played a crucial role in mobilizing (together with the Arab Socialist Union, the NDP’s grand daddy) mass pro-Nasser demos following the 1967 defeat, and in countering the January 1977 “Bread Intifada”… providing the successive military regimes with an arm inside the working class, and with a vital tool for pro-government street mobilization.
http://arabist.net/archives/2006/06/24/embracing-the-labor-unions-elections/

Bildat 1957

The General Federation cannot claim anymore it is the “representative of Egypt’s workers.” The Federation’s membership today stands roughly at 3.7 million workers– only 20 to 25% of Egypt’s working class. The vast majority of the workers are outside the govt-controlled union structures at the present time… and they don’t have any representative body.
The General Federation is facing international isolation, after repeated requests to join international labor bodies were refused because of obvious lack of independence and the draconian restrictions the Federation itself imposes on the right to strike.

The regime depends strongly on the union bureaucracy for mobilization. Those buses that were shipping in the “NDP supporters” to electoral posts during the November 2005 parliamentary elections, to rig the vote in the provinces, were carrying no ones but poor public sector workers, mobilized by the union bureaucrats who are closely affiliated with the NDP.
The “mass demos” that the NDP mobilizes, whether to cheer the president’s visit to some town, or to protest the Iraq war in the Cairo Stadium in February 2003, were also mobilized by the unions.
In the past, the General Federation played a crucial role in mobilizing (together with the Arab Socialist Union, the NDP’s grand daddy) mass pro-Nasser demos following the 1967 defeat, and in countering the January 1977 “Bread Intifada”… providing the successive military regimes with an arm inside the working class, and with a vital tool for pro-government street mobilization.

(regimen behöver facket för sin legitimitet i förändringar av konstitutionen...)

http://arabist.net/arabawy/2007/01/28/monday-mahalla-textile-workers-demand-their-pro-govt-union-dissolved/


In Egypt, there are 13 industrial unions whose top leaders are appointed by the state; local-level officers are elected with the support of state security agents. Local law also does not permit labor competition — a union can’t organize workers from another sector, and there has never been a legal strike in Egyptian history, labor experts say.
“Control over the unions has always been thought of as a national security issue,” said Ragui Assaad, an Egyptian labor expert. “It’s not about wages and collective bargaining, it’s about making sure the state has control over an active, organized, movement that can make trouble.”


http://arabist.net/arabawy/2007/02/22/sfc-explosion-of-strikes-rocks-egyptian-firms/


http://arabist.net/arabawy/2007/01/30/mahalla-textile-workers-slam-their-general-union-officials/