State responds to recent labor protests with heightened repression and exceptional legal measures, 24 January 2017

The latest crackdown took place in the Suez Governorate on January 2, when police forcefully dispersed a sit-in at the privately owned IFFCO Oils Company … arresting scores of workers, 21 of whom are now standing trial for “instigating a strike,” while two remain jailed pending investigations … Seoud Omar, a Suez-based trade unionist says … “police are clearly acting on behalf of business interests and against workers’ basic rights”… Ahmed Bakr, the secretary general of the Independent Union of IFFCO Employees, says that since January 2, 27 workers have been barred from entering the company ... Another notable security crackdown took place on December 5, when police raided the Egyptian Fertilizers Company (EFC) and Egyptian Basic Industries Corporation (EBIC)… Following the forced dispersal of these strikes, a half-page notice was published in state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper, asserting that “Workers consider themselves to be strategic partners with the owners of capital.” … Yasser al-Geneidy, who was arrested in the raid, points out that he wrote this apology together with a co-worker, under pressure from company administrators. “We were told to formulate this apology as a precondition to being reinstated,” he says.