VZCZCXRO9466
RR RUEHHM RUEHJO RUEHPOD
DE RUEHEG #1877/01 1701320
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 191320Z JUN 07
FM AMEMBASSY CAIRO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5737
INFO RUEHXI/LABOR COLLECTIVE
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 CAIRO 001877 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NEA/ELA (NAFZIGER), DRL (ANZALDUA) 
NSC FOR WATERS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ELAB ECON PGOV PHUM EG
SUBJECT: EGYPT LABOR: STRIKES ONGOING, GOE REFUTES ILO 
REPORT 
 
REF: CAIRO 01595 
 
 ------- 
SUMMARY 
------- 
¶1. (SBU) Although no broad-based alternative worker movement 
has yet to coalesce, the Kefaya movement's actions in 
solidarity with striking textile workers in Mansoura could 
hint at future coordination.  Strong GOE rebukes greeted the 
release of an ILO report that cited employment discrimination 
against Egypt's Copts, but ILO operations here do not appear 
to be affected.  Minister of Manpower Aisha Abdel Hady is 
under pressure, not only from the strikes but from the 
political backlash of her signing a labor protocol with Saudi 
Arabia.  End summary. 
 
------------------ 
STRIKES PERSISTENT 
----------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) Some of Egypt's manyrecent labor strikes are 
beginning to elicit broder support from opposition and civil 
society grops. The primarily female workers at the 
MansouraEspana Garments Company are continuing the sit-in 
strike launched on April 21 over years of unpaid onuses and 
the potential sale of the firm (refte).  The Kefaya 
("Enough!") opposition movement ha joined with labor 
activists, bloggers, and othe civil society groups to 
organize a boycott of te United Bank, which owns a 
controlling interestin the company.  In addition to the 
boycott, Kefya is organizing a letter-writing campaign, and 
pominent leftist blogger Hossam Hamalway posted ful contact 
details of the bank's management on hiswebsite.  The group 
plans to stage a solidarity rotest in front of the bank's 
Mansoura branch onJune 19, and is planning to organize a 
"solidarit trip" by "activists and interested journalists"to join in the action.  According to reports, someKefaya and 
Tagamu Party members have also joinedthe workers at the 
factory and provided them wit food and other essentials. 
Kefaya has also recenly organized protests against 
privatization of sate-owned companies under the banner of 
"No to Slling Egypt." 
 
¶3. (SBU) The Mansoura-Espana factry employs 284 workers, 
seventy-five percent of hich are female.  In response to 
their ongoing sit-in, the workers report that the company has 
shut off food and water, and report that on June 16 six 
workers were fired and fifteen others referred to the local 
police station under accusations of inciting unrest. 
According to the striking workers, the bank notified the 
workers that it planned to liquidate the company despite 
ongoing negotiations between workers, the Egyptian Trade 
Union Federation, and the Minister of Manpower Aisha Abdel 
Hady.  Operations are currently suspended. 
 
¶4. (SBU) In another textile industry strike, press reports 
indicate the management of the El-Seyoof Company for Spinning 
and Weaving in Alexandria cut off water and electricity and 
withdrew canteen workers to force an end to an ongoing 
workers' protest.  Echoing earlier GOE attempts to head off 
protests, direct intervention by Minister Abdel Hady in early 
June forestalled a strike in solidarity with a dismissed 
worker at the Bolivara Spinning and Weaving Company.  Abdel 
Hady reportedly contacted the worker directly via telephone 
and promised to reinstate him.  Despite the treatment of some 
workers engaged in on-going strikes, post-settlement employer 
reprisals against workers do not appear widespread.  The 
hunger strikers at the Suez Integrated Oil Company, for 
example, not only extracted concessions from their employer 
but had their strike days counted as holidays. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Regarding the potential for strikes at Cairo's 
public flour mills (reftel) that could potentially disrupt 
bread provision to the capital, labor activist contacts tell 
us that the Ministry of Social Solidarity has maintained an 
active and engaging negotiating process with the workers. 
These efforts, they said, have thus far prevented strikes but 
have yet to achieve a final settlement. 
 
---------------------------------- 
ILO REPORT RAISES OFFICIAL HACKLES 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶6. (SBU) Assertions regarding employment discrimination 
against Egypt's Coptic Christian community in the May 2007 
International Labor Organization (ILO) report "Equality at 
 
CAIRO 00001877  002 OF 002 
 
 
Work: Tackling the Challenges" provoked angry retorts from 
senior GOE officials.  Abdel Hady immediately refuted the 
allegations, saying that Egypt's constitution guarantees 
citizenship rights, and that Copts controlled about one-third 
of the nation's wealth and headed some of its largest 
companies.  On June 6, Minister of Foreign Affairs Ahmed Abul 
Gheit issued a strong rejection of the report, expressing his 
resentment over the ILO's reliance on "unreliable and 
inaccurate information that lacks objectivity."  ILO 
headquarters later issued a statement that was carried in 
some Egyptian newspapers regretting the sourcing of their 
information, which they had drawn from the copts.com website. 
 
 
¶7. (SBU) Abdel Hady's comments, particularly those regarding 
the Copt's reported share of national wealth, generated 
criticism from some in the Coptic community here.  Some 
prominent Copts here said the minister's comments, which also 
referred to Christians as brothers, seemed to divide the 
country into religious camps and could incite sectarian 
strife.   Other questioned the figures she put forth and 
demanded to know her sourcing. 
 
¶8. (SBU) The Senior Program Officer for the ILO Sub-regional 
Office for North Africa in Cairo said that her office had not 
received any blowback -- official or otherwise -- over the 
issue, and host-nation cooperation on the various ILO 
programs here was unaffected.  She added that the ILO and the 
GOE appeared to have resolved the issue in Geneva. 
 
------------------------ 
EGYPTIAN MAIDS TO SAUDI? 
------------------------ 
 
¶9. (SBU) In early June, reports of a protocol signed by Abdel 
Hady and the Chairman of the Saudi National Committee for 
Recruitment and Manpower Saad al-Baddah, allegedly regarding 
the recruitment of 120,000 Egyptian maids to work in the 
Kingdom, caused a public outcry in Cairo.  Firing back at 
criticism from Parliament and the general public over the 
"demeaning," humiliating" and "scandalous" agreement, Abdel 
Hady said the protocol dealt with bilateral labor issues 
broadly and had nothing to do with maids.  Specifically, she 
said, the protocol aimed to ensure proper treatment of 
Egyptian nurses who tended to elderly patients in Saudi, 
stipulating provision of adequate housing and living 
conditions. 
 
¶10. (SBU) Abdel Hady added in her public statements that the 
Ministry of Manpower and Migration prevents the travel of 
female labor to Saudi under the title of "maid" or 
"housekeeper" in order to protect "the dignity of Egyptian 
labor."  Many women's rights activists dismissed the 
minister's assertions, however.  Head of the Egyptian Center 
for Women's Rights Nehad Abul Komsan said the move would 
propagate a "slavery market" whereby young Egyptian girls 
would be sold into the Gulf, and accused the minister of 
trying to rid Egypt of excess population.  Director of the 
Women's Issues Center Azza Kamel told journalists that this 
showed the absence of a strategy for tackling poverty and 
unemployment and could lead to organized trafficking. 
 
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COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶11. (SBU) Aside from some recent small-scale conferences, no 
major push has been made among workers to better coordinate 
their efforts and form a broader cross-sectoral movement.  We 
will watch to see if the Kefaya movement's actions in 
solidarity with the Mansoura-Espana workers morph into a 
larger-scale effort.  Despite the sensitivities aroused by 
the ILO report, it doesn't appear to have affected GOE-ILO 
cooperation on programs here, and we do not anticipate the 
incident in and of itself would hinder the implementation of 
the proposed USDOL-funded labor democratization project. 
Already under pressure over the strikes, the controversy 
caused by the "maids" labor protocol with Saudi Arabia has 
added to speculation among observers about the increasing 
potential for Aisha Abdel Hady's imminent departure from the 
cabinet. 
JONES