DNE: State denies workers’ rights group registration, citing “security reasons”

State denies workers’ rights group registration, citing “security reasons”

By Liam Stack
First Published: August 18, 2007

CAIRO: Four months after shutting down the headquarters of Egypt’s most active workers’ rights group, the government has refused to allow the Center for Trade Union and Worker Services (CTUWS) to register as a non-governmental organization.

In its decision, the Ministry of Social Solidarity told the group that "the security bodies rejected its registration for security reasons.”

According to a statement provided to Daily News Egypt, the CTUWS petitioned the state to be registered as an NGO on June 13, after several weeks of consultations with the Ministry of Social Solidarity and the Director of the Central Department of Associations and NGOs.

The group says it was informed of the state’s decision at the end of the mandatory 60-day waiting period, and has expressed “surprise” at the rejection of its application.

The Center’s woes began in April when the government began to close its provincial branch offices one by one, first in the Upper Egyptian province of Qena and later in the delta town of Mahalla. By the end of that month state security shut down the Center’s headquarters in Cairo’s Helwan neighborhood as well, also citing security concerns.

Egypt has seen a surge in labor unrest in recent years, with strikes spreading to almost every sector of the economy.

The most high profile of these actions was last December’s strike in Ghazl El-Mahalla, where 27,000 workers organized in defiance of their government-backed union leaders and forced factory management to compromise on wages and benefits.

The strike became iconic in the labor movement, and has inspired other workers to organize outside of the official union system, which is dominated by the ruling National Democratic Party of President Hosni Mubarak.

The regime has reacted warily to the strikes, viewing them as a threat to national stability but unsure of exactly how to respond to such widespread protests and to the increase of independent worker activity.

The shut down of the CTUWS was part of that response. As the country’s most active independent labor group, the state accused the Center of inciting workers to strike, organizing them outside the union system and endangering national stability.

But in remarks given to Daily News Egypt before his offices were shuttered, CTUWS Director Kamal Abbas denied that the Center had any organizing role in the strikes.

“The government has tried to lay all the blame on CTUWS and say that we instigated it all,” he said. “It’s an honor we can’t claim, although we would have loved if this had been the case.”

“Just by the fact that some of the strike leaders were either members of groups like the Tagamu Party or the CTUWS or any other organization does not mean that these groups were the ones that mobilized for the strike,” he added.

The surge of labor unrest and strikes has continued in the absence of the CTUWS, with July witnessing 97 separate strikes across the country, according to the Egyptian Workers and Trade Unions Watch. More than 17,000 people participated in these actions, with another 100,000 threatening to join in.