Egypt: Call for a general strike of Petrotrade workers

14th Febaruary, oil and gas workers on strike. Photo: 3arabawThe
higher coordination committee of the Petrotrade workers calls all
employees to a general strike at all company sites and to an open-ended
sit-in at all the company’s different locations in Cairo and other
governorates and a sit-in in front of the Ministry of Petroleum starting
on Sunday, February 13th and until all the demands of the company’s
workers are met, noting that the right to strike is guaranteed by law
and the Constitution and international conventions signed by Egypt.

Workers’ negotiations with the leadership of the Ministry of
Petroleum (Sameh Fahmi) have failed miserably due to the insistence of
the ministry not to apply the old agreed upon list of demands/rules and
their attempt to apply another list in return for carrying out a few
improvements which was rejected by the company’s workers who insisted on
achieving the following demands:

1. Resignation of Sameh Fahmi sponsor of exporting Egyptian gas to Israel;
2. Dismissal of the Board of Directors, chaired by Mohamed Darwish and the appointment of another Board headed by Salah Al-Jahmi.
3. Tackling the issue of new temporary workers, like their colleagues
   on the old approved list were tackled enabling them to earn thousands of
   pounds due to the rampant and corruption within the company;
4. The reinstatement of all laid off workers, permanent and temporary
   workers, who were fired for demanding their legitimate rights from the
   company for equality on the list approved;
5. The collectors are to get a percentage of the collection fees and
   advertising attached to the bill, the same as the collectors of public
   transport and real estate taxes and all those who work in the collection
   of various sectors of the State;
6. The establishment of a union to defend the company worker’s rights.

We, the workers of the Petrotrade company announce that we will not
give up our rights and the rights of our colleagues because we are the
owners of the right and we will not submit to rosy promises that are
used by the company’s management and the ministry on promotion.

We also will not end our strike until we reach full agreement on our
demands, and in coordination with our colleagues in other areas will not
submit to tactics practiced by the Ministry of Petroleum.

We condemn the compromises Sameh Fahmi is conducting in order not to
meet our demands, and that he spent millions of pounds on the football
teams without regard to the difficult working conditions.

We call workers to print out our demands and distribute them to our
colleagues to spread the call for the general strike on the internet and
by sending SMS/text messages to colleagues and print the statement
issued by the Coordinating Committee of Workers and distribute it in the
regions and on different media.

Long live the struggle of the free workers of Petrotrade!

No to corruption and nepotism and cronyism within Petrotrade!