Amoklauf eines Bürokraten

Die jüngsten Streiks und die sichtbare Unzufriedenheit immer größerer Teile der ägyptischen (Textil-) ArbeiterInnen lassen Mubaraks Gewerkschaftsbürokraten im ETUF offensichtlich hypernervös werden - und nicht klüger. Weil die oppositionelle Al Wafd Zeitung das Statement der zivilgesellschaftlichen Organsationen über den Angriff der ETUF-Häuptlinge gegen das CTUWS abdruckte, attackierte der Gewerkschaftsbundobere nun einen Journalisten - und handelte sich Ärger mit der Journalistengewerkschaft ein. Die (englische) Pressemitteilung "CRISIS ESCALATION BETWEEN “ETUF” AND THE JOURNALISTS SYNDICATE" des CTUWS vom 18. Februar 2007.

THE EGYPTIAN TRADE UNION FEDERATION “ETUF” INSISTS TO DECLARE ITSELF ENEMY OF ALL CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS - CRISIS ESCALATION BETWEEN “ETUF” AND THE JOURNALISTS SYNDICATE

The crisis between the Egyptian Trade Union Federation “ETUF” and the Syndicate of Journalists continued escalation during this week. On Thursday 15 February 2007 ETUF’s President Mr. Hussein Megawer assaulted Mr. Khaled Hassan a journalist of Al Wafd Newspaper (the newspaper of the Al Wafd Opposition Party). Mr. Khaled Hassan was following up a press conference organized at the Red Crescent Association of Shebin El Koum when he was assaulted. The speakers at the press conference were the Minister of Investments, the Minister of Manpower and Migration and the president of the Egyptian Trade Union Federation. The main theme was latest workers’ strikes in the spinning and weaving sector and their relations with the deteriorated conditions of this industry and its workers.

The president of the Egyptian Trade Union Federation stopped the journalist while he was passing a corridor, insulted him and tried to beat him but some of ETUF’s members and some journalists hold him back.

This assault of ETUF’s president against the journalist Mr. Khaled Hassan took place because he published a press report at Al Wafd Newspaper on Wednesday 14th February under the title “The Trade Union Federation Sold the Workers – Megawer Devoted Himself Against the Workers and to the Management of the Several Positions he Occupies”. The report criticized the performance of the Egyptian Trade Union Federation vis-à-vis the latest crisis which led to the strikes of workers from Mehalla el Kobra, to Shebin el Koum and then Kafr el Dawar. The crisis showed a wide gap between the workers and the trade union organization.

Mr. Khaled Hassan, having been attacked by the president of the Egyptian Trade Union Federation, filed a report to the Secretary General of the Journalists Syndicate requesting to consider the assault and the subsequent decision taken by ETUF’s president to prevent any journalist from Al Wafd Newspaper or Al Gomhouriya Newspaper from entering the building of the Egyptian Trade Union Federation.

As a consequence, the President of the Syndicate of Journalists met with the complainer Mr. Khaled Hassan on Saturday 17 February and expressed his sorrow for such offenses from ETUF’s president Mr. Hussein Megawer against him in particular and against the journalists in general.

It is worthy to mention that the abovementioned facts are not the first part of the crisis which the ETUF has stirred up for the Syndicate. The beginning was on Wednesday 7 February when Mr. Abdel Rahman Kheir president of the General Trade Union of Military Production with about 30 other persons besieged the Syndicate premises and picked a quarrel with some of its members.

Such provocations made by persons from the Egyptian Trade Union Federation against the Syndicate of Journalists started because 16 non governmental organizations organized a press conference at the Syndicate’s building in solidarity with the Center for Trade Union and Workers Services “CTUWS” which was subject to a fierce attack from ETUF. The NGOs which participated in the press conference rejected ETUF’s behavior and accusing a civil society organization for being a stooge and disloyal to the country and setting the state authorities against that organization. When the ETUF failed to prevent the press conference, it sent the president of the General Trade Union of Military Production who led a group of his people to besiege the Syndicate of Journalists and to make it subject to the same well-known list of accusations for disloyalty and treachery.

The Syndicate denounced ETUF’s behavior in a message addressed from its Secretary General of the President of ETUF asking him to conduct a serious and transparent investigation of the case and to hold those who besieged the Syndicate’s premises accountable for their deeds. The message described ETUF’s behavior as abnormal and unreliable for establishing proper relations between union entities.

Instead of apologizing to confine the crisis, the president of the Egyptian Trade Union Federation renewed his provocations against one of the journalists and held himself an enemy of all who criticize him. He emphasized that insults, accusations and at last the attempts to beat journalists are the only means approved by ETUF to enter into dialogue with the other civil society organizations !!

The Center for Trade Union and Workers Services
“CTUWS”
Sunday, 18th February 2007