Workers in the garments and finishing divisions at Misr El Amria Spinning & Weaving Co. in Alexandria suspended their strike on Tuesday, pending a management response to their demands, after walking off the job last Thursday.
The dispute centers on rising payroll deductions and workers’ calls for a fixed bonus, higher allowances and a clearer application of the minimum wage, workers told Al Manassa. The halt to the strike followed a meeting between worker representatives and acting chief executive Mohamed Abdel Salam, they said, as the protest coincided with a Monday visit by a delegation of Chinese investors that could end with a contract for the company to produce fabrics for Chinese firms.
At the meeting, Abdel Salam raised plans to lay off dozens of day-wage workers, claiming they drain the company, even though their daily pay does not exceed 150 Egyptian pounds (about $3), the workers said.
One representative said workers pressed Abdel Salam on increased deductions from wages, a fixed 700-pound incentive, raising the meal allowance to 500 pounds, applying the minimum wage in a way that reflects job grades, and raising pay for long-serving workers hired in the 1990s by at least 25%.
However, the worker explained that Abdel Salam tried to appear indifferent about whether the strike continued, arguing that halting production would save operating costs as the company is loss-making, a response that angered workers. “If our work doesn’t matter to him, why is he meeting us and negotiating?” the worker said.
A second worker who attended the meeting said Abdel Salam told them day-wage workers would be let go because they drained the firm. Workers pushed back, arguing the company should cut consultants, department heads and contracted staff paid tens or hundreds of thousands of pounds, not day laborers earning 100–150 pounds a day.
Many day-wage workers are retirees, some over 70, forced back to work because their pensions are too small. They work hard and are not a burden on the company, the worker added.
Workers also demanded that a government body form a committee to determine the taxes and deductions applied to wages to prevent manipulation, and that decisions on day-wage staffing be left to department managers, who can best assess whether they are needed.
The representative, who asked not to be named, said the company head requested time until next week to respond to the demands.
Last Thursday, hundreds of workers in the garments and finishing divisions at Misr El Amria in Alexandria went on strike to protest a sudden increase in deductions from their wages.
A day before the strike, Misr El Amria management in Alexandria reversed a decision to impose a mandatory day off every Thursday for finishing-division workers, to be deducted from their annual leave balance, after workers objected and stopped work for several hours.
Before the latest crisis, the company’s workers had filed complaints with Alexandria’s labor directorate in October seeking retroactive overtime pay based on full, not basic, wages for the past two years. They said overtime had been calculated on base pay and folded into the minimum wage. The complaints were later referred to court.
That followed a 16-day strike protesting what workers described as shortchanging workers on the minimum wage and failing to account for job grades. They demanded the removal of former CEO and managing director Ahmed Amr Ragab and his advisers. The strike ended after Ragab resigned, with workers returning under pressure, amid threats of dismissal and of being reported to National Security, after achieving part of their demands.
