Egypt razor company fires 84 workers in a week for striking

Lord International razor manufacturer has fired an extra 39 workers after they participated in a strike against their pay.

This move comes in spite of reassurances from management that workers would not be subject to punitive measures if they returned to work.

They have given the reason for their decision as participating in “unlawful work strikes, incitement to an illegal work strike, and the deliberate abuse of the company causing material and moral damage,” reports Sada.

Some 2,000 workers went on strike on 26 July after management refused to negotiate over their demands, which included raising their wages, so it came inline with the minimum wage of 2,400 Egyptian pounds ($153) per month.

On 1 August Lord International fired 38 workers, then a further seven, making a total of 84 workers who have been sacked in a week.

READ: Amnesty calls on Egypt to probe ‘extrajudicial executions’ seen in army video

Even though the management promised it would set a meeting to discuss the workers’ demands, it refused to meet them and did not give them their Eid bonus in July which sparked them to go on strike.

In May, ten Iron and Steel Company workers were arrested after they took to the streets upon hearing the news that the company would be liquidated to demand sufficient compensation.

In July, the International Trade Union Confederation listed Egypt as one of the world’s worst ten countries for workers highlighting that it abused workers’ rights to strike, organise a union and attacked their free speech.

In March last year, as the covid crisis erupted, Egypt’s second richest man, Naguib Sawiris, said that Egyptians should sleep on the floors of factories to reduce their movement and get back to work.

Amnesty International has in the past described the Egyptian government’s attack on workers and trade unionists as relentless, with arrest, detention, dismissal and trials in military courts the norm.

Workers have been held in pretrial detention just for protesting.