Betriebliches Gewerkschaftskomitee bildet neuen Vorstand - Wahlen "vergessen"

Die Gewerkschaftsvertretung bei der Upper Egypt Dredgers' Company hat eine neue Leitung - deren Einsetzung vom bisherigen Vorsitzenden (dem die Komiteemehrheit das Vertrauen entzogen hatte) und dem Vorstand der Allgemeinen Gewerkschaft der Landarbeiter betrieben wurde. Damit ist eine krisenhafte Entwicklung an ihren Höhepunkt gelangt. Der (englische, mit kurzer deutscher Zusammenfassung) Bericht "TRADE UNION CRISIS IN UPPER EGYPT DREDGERS COMPANY" des Center for Trade Union and Workers Services vom 28. November 2005

TRADE UNION CRISIS IN UPPER EGYPT DREDGERS COMPANY:

THE GENERAL TRADE UNION OF AGRICULTURAL WORKERS CONTRAVENES THE LAW AND REFORMS THE COMPANY'S TRADE UNION COMMITTEE WITHOUT ELECTIONS

Trade union conditions at the Upper Egypt Dredgers' Company reached the top of the crisis last week. The majority of the members of the Company's Trade Union Committee were surprised by a sudden reformation of their Committee's Board. The change was made with the help of a few members of the Committee with the support of the Board of Directors of the General Trade Union of Agricultural Workers. The change, which came against the will of the majority of the Committee's board members, represents a blunt contravention of the Trade Union Law.

The crisis began when six members of the Trade Union Committee (who represent the majority of the members) reformed the Board and withdrew the confidence from the chairman of the Board because he opaquely departed in a non democratic manner from trade union principles and duties. But the Board of Directors of the General Trade Union of Agricultural Workers (in which the said Committee is a member) took sides with the displaced chairman and did not respond to the will of the majority.

Because the Board of Directors of the General Trade Union of Agricultural Workers insisted to disregard and disrespect the will of the majority, the six members of Company's Trade Union Committee sent to the Board of the General Trade Union their justified resignations. They also asked the General Trade Union to investigate the causes that led them to submit their resignations, as is supposed in such cases.

However, the Board of Directors of the General Trade Union of Agricultural Workers did not carry out the required investigation of Mr. Asaad Mohamed El Dawy, Mr. Refaat Ahmed Farrag, Mr. Abdel Rahim Ahmed Abdel Rahim, Mr. Mustafa Mohamed Aly, Mr. Osman Ahmed Osman and Mr. Mohamed Abdel Hameed Mohamed. The Board did not even inform those members that their resignations were accepted because the Trade Union Committee has become dissolved by the rule of the law. Instead, they learnt that the General Trade Union summoned some of the candidates for the previous trade union elections (who did not win the confidence or the votes of the workers). Those summoned candidates, together with the minority of the Company's Trade Union Committee members, formed the new Trade Union Committee of the Company.

The Board of Directors of the General Trade Union of Agricultural Workers ignored the will of the majority of the Company's Trade Union Committee to change their board members. It also ignored their call to investigate the causes of their resignations. Once the Board of Directors of the General Trade Union of Agricultural Workers announces its acceptance of their resignations, the Company's Trade Union Committee shall be considered dissolved by the rule of the law and by virtue of Article No. 43 of the Trade Unions Law and the General Assembly of the Committee (i.e. all the workers of the Upper Egypt Dredgers Company) must be summoned to new trade union elections during a period not exceeding two months.

Not only did the Board of Directors of the General Trade Union of Agricultural Workers ignore the will of the majority, bit it has also intentionally colluded with the minority of the members of the Trade Union Committee and made a new formation in the absence of the majority of the Committee members. Moreover, it ignored the will of the voters of the Dredgers Company who have the right to elect the members of their Trade Union Committee in case more than half of the Committee Members resign. It is not allowed to appoint new members to replace those who have resigned.

The Center for Trade Union and Workers Services deplores the method adopted by the Board of Directors of the General Trade Union of Agricultural Workers in handling the affairs the Trade Union Committee of the Upper Egypt Dredgers Company and calls upon it to enforce the Trade Union Law in this respect and to respect the will of the Company's workers who are the voters and the owners of the right to hold accountable the members they had elected in order to represent them and to express their will.

Kurze deutsche Zusammenfassung

Die Auseinandersetzung in der betrieblichen Gewerkschaftsvertretung begann, als sechs Mitglieder des Komitees (die Mehrheit) den Vorsitzenden ablösen wollten, weil sie ihm vorwarfen, sich von den Gewerkschaftspolitik entfernt zu haben. Dieser Schritt wurde vom Vorstand der gewerkschaft nicht gebilligt, stattdessen der daraufhin angebotene Rücktritt der sechs stillschweigend dazu genutzt, ein neues Komitee zu bilden - unter anderem mit Kandidaten, die bei den letzten Wahlen unterlegen waren.

Der Paragraph 43 des Gewerkschaftsgesetzes aber schreibt nicht nur in einem solchen Fall Neuwahlen vor, sondern untersagt auch ausdrücklich die Ernennung eines Ersatzkomitees bzw von Ersatzmitgliedern.

(hrw)