This is my rough machine-assisted translation of an Arabic-language blog post by the Center for Trade Union & Workers Services, here on UnionBook: http://www.unionbook.org/pg/file/CTUWS/read/13503/------- .

I hope CTUWS approves of my version, which I've done in order to help spread the word about their work. Any errors in this translation are the fault of my own misunderstanding of the text.

May 10, 2009

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More than 1200 workers of the Globe Company for Spinning, Weaving and Dyeing in Sadat City went on strike at the open of business on Thursday, May 7, 2009, following the refusal of the Turkish owner of the company, to increase the salaries of workers, which had been promised six months ago. The Turkish investor has operated in the city since the Sadat Administration (1970 - 1981). More than 1000 workers earned salaries ranging from 250 to 400 pounds with the promise of salary increases after six months of operation, but the owner rejected this, saying that that there was a crisis affecting the global financial system. This in turn was denied by the company's workers, stressing that the company's production continues to increase in export transactions. Its exports to many of the countries of the world have not stopped.

The strike began with workers who were surprised by the release of a document confirming the rejection of the payment of any salary increases and the departments within the company which were affected. Since they did not wish to leave the company without payment of any benefits, many workers joined the strike, the second in the recent period. The workforce, before third shift began on the twelfth night, were forcibly expelled locked out, with Globe saying that the factory intends to sell off the plant due to the global financial crisis.

The CTUWS emphasizes its full solidarity with the legitimate demands of Globe's workers and calls on all the democratic forces in Egyptian society to show their solidarity with the laborers of the Globe Company for Spinning, Weaving and Dyeing. It warns of the increasing use by business of the global financial crisis for the expulsion of workers without payment of any accrued rights.  It also expresses its grave concern about this trend, in which some employers have turned towards the abusive curtailment of the rights of workers, taking arbitrary action by citing suspicious coincidences. These come against the backdrop of the global financial crisis and its aftermath, and the allegation that business needs a bill passed to provide government support, along with the weakening of labour's rights to put pressure on companies. CTUWS believes that this course would absolve business from all social responsibility. It has led in practice to a crisis in the work of more than one location in the last few days. It would lead to great stress on the workforce and the evolution of the current crisis into a more negative one, one which could only become yet more serious.

Center for Trade Union & Workers Services, 8 May 2009