Abstract
The chapter analyzes the trajectory of Egypt’s independent trade union movement, focusing on developments since the 2011 revolution. In order to explain why the movement proved unable to establish itself as a significant player in the post-uprising context and make its demands heard in the political arena, the chapter particularly discusses structural and institutional features, namely, the movement’s socioeconomic base and its organizational structure, as well as its collective action frame. The main argument put forward in this chapter is that workers’ protests, even if they have remained surprisingly high after the increase in repression since Morsi’s ouster in July 2013, are scattered and largely take place at the local or factory level. This is so because the rise of new forms of labor mobilization in Egypt has led to an institutionally fragmented, organizationally weak and only partially representative movement which, at the national level, lacks the capacity to mobilize workers and/or exert significant political influence. In addition, the new trade union movement’s predominant collective action frame is characterized by narrow and issue-specific economic claims—a frame that reflects and reinforces both the movement’s internal structural weakness and its external lack of reliable sociopolitical allies.
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Notes
- 1.
According to the “Al-Masry Al-Youm” newspaper, labor protests increased from only a few protests on 7 February in a number of governorates to 20 protests on 8 February in 9 governorates, 35 protests on 10 February in 14 governorates, and to 65 protests on 11 February, that is, on the day President Mubarak stepped down.
- 2.
CTUWS, an NGO founded in 1990, has played an important role in providing legal and technical support for independent labor protests.
- 3.
It is worth mentioning that the fuel subsidy has accounted for about 20% of total government expenditure since 2008, and has thus contributed to the increase of the state budgets deficit, which has reached 12–13% of GDP according to estimates by the current finance minister (see Adly 2014).
- 4.
According to the state-run CAPMAS statistics agency, annual consumer prices in urban areas climbed 33%, up from 29.8% in June (see El Tanlawy and Feteha 2017).
- 5.
In order to bolster its fiscal position in late August 2016 the government also introduced value-added tax (13%), which has significantly increased the burden on consumers, workers included.
- 6.
These cases include protests by the local trade unions of real-estate tax collectors and teachers (both affiliated to EFITU) as well as of the local trade unions of the public transport workers, the post office workers and Telecom Egypt employees (all affiliated to EDLC). Interview with Mohamed Mostafa, ILO officer in Egypt, January 2016, Cairo.
- 7.
Ibid.
- 8.
A case in point is Brazil’s New Unionist movement that emerged in the 1970s and played a key role in the country’s transition to democracy in the 1980s (see Abdalla and Wolff 2016).
- 9.
Interview with Tarek Koaib, one of the leaders of the real-estate tax collector mobilization in 2007 and the current president of the Real-Estate Tax Collector New Trade Union, January 2016, Cairo.
- 10.
These strikes, by triggering a wave of strikes in other sectors, contributed to pushing the SCAF to oblige Mubarak to step down.
- 11.
Interview with Tarek Koaib, one of the leaders of the real-estate tax collector mobilization in 2007 and the current president of the Real-Estate Tax Collector New Trade Union, January 2016, Cairo.
- 12.
Ibid.
- 13.
While these funds go mostly to the industrial workers, some civil servants also benefit from them.
- 14.
In Egypt, workers number 23.9 million according to the CAPMAS (see Abdel Moati 2015).
- 15.
Interview with Mohamed Mostafa, ILO officer in Egypt, June 2017, Cairo.
- 16.
This is the case, for instance, of the Egyptian Company for Spinning and Weaving in Mahalla al-Kubra, or the Iron and Steel Company Helwan.
- 17.
Workers of the 10th of Ramadan City live, for instance, in the cities of Belbeis and Ismailia.
- 18.
Interview with Mohamed Mostafa, ILO officer in Egypt, June 2017, Cairo.
- 19.
Abu Eita was the founder of the independent union of the real-estate tax collectors, leader of the nationalist “Karama” party and member of the post-revolutionary parliament until it was dissolved in June 2012.
- 20.
Interview with Noha Roshdi, leader of the real-estate tax collector union and member of EFITU’s executive board, January 2016, Cairo.
- 21.
In September 2013, one (of the 25 members) of EFITU’s executive board left the organization to build a separate trade union federation: The General Federation for Egyptian Trade Unions (al-iitihad al-‘am li-l- niqabat al-misriyya). By the end of 2015, several member organizations had left EFITU and joined EDLC, including the new trade union of Egyptian Telecom (niqaba al-misriyya li-l-ittisalat) and the Prosecutors and courts’ new trade union (niqabat al-niyabat wa-l-mahakim).
- 22.
Before becoming president of CTUWS, Kamal Abas was a labor leader at the Helwan Iron and Steel factory.
- 23.
Interview with Mohamed Mostafa, ILO officer in Egypt, June 2017, Cairo.
- 24.
Example of basic costs are the salaries of their administrative employees, the rents of their offices, costs for flyers and so on.
- 25.
Interview with Noha Roshdi, leader in the real-estate tax collector union and member of EFITU’s executive board, January 2016, Cairo.
- 26.
Interview with Mohamed Mostafa, ILO officer in Egypt, January 2016, Cairo. These foreign institutions include international organizations (such as the International Labor Organization (ILO), the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), Public Services International (PSI), and the Industrial Global Union (IGU)) as well as organizations affiliated to certain European countries (such as the Danish Development Assistance Programs (DANIDA), the Confederation of Professionals in Denmark (FTF) and the German Political Foundation Friedrich Ebert (FES)).
- 27.
Or on support by local NGOs which were, for their part, funded by foreign institutions.
- 28.
Interview with Fatma Ramada, leader of the new trade union of the employees of the Ministry of Labor in Giza and ex-member of EFITU’s executive board, Cairo, June 2017.
- 29.
The financial resources needed to organize these meetings include, for example, costs for large meeting rooms as well as for the travel of local trade union leaders coming from different governorates.
- 30.
Interview with Fatma Ramada, leader of the new trade union of the employees of the Ministry of Labor in Giza and ex-member of EFITU’s executive board, Cairo, June 2017.
- 31.
Frame bridging is the “linkage of two or more ideologically congruent but structurally unconnected frames regarding a particular issue or problem” (Snow et al. 1986, p. 467).
- 32.
For instance, in the 2011 and 2012 elections the leftist coalition “Revolution Continues” won only 8 of 508 parliamentary seats. The two remaining leftist parties that were not part of this coalition, Tagammu Party and the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, won 3 and 16 seats, respectively.
- 33.
Interview with Noha Roshdi, leader at the real-estate tax collector new trade union, January 2016, Cairo.
- 34.
Fieldwork observation.
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Abdalla, N. (2020). From the Dream of Change to the Nightmare of Structural Weakness: The Trajectory of Egypt’s Independent Trade Union Movement After 2011. In: Weipert-Fenner, I., Wolff, J. (eds) Socioeconomic Protests in MENA and Latin America. Middle East Today. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19621-9_6
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