Egyptian workers tested Wednesday the limits of the freedom won in the revolt against Hosni Mubarak, staging pay strikes despite calls from the new military regime for them to return to work.
Workers in Egypt's largest factory re-started their strike for higher wages and better conditions, defying the warning by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces that more strikes would be "disastrous", Hurriyet Daily News reported according to Agence France-Presse.
Faisal Naousha, a strike organizer, said that workers in the Misr Spinning and Weaving textile factory - which employs 24,000 people in the Nile Delta city of Al-Mahalla al-Kubra - also want two top managers to resign.
The workers had suspended a strike three days ago, but Naousha said at the time they would continue to press for higher wages. Last year a court ruling raised the minimum wage from 400 LE ($68) to 1200 LE ($204), but the workers have not received their dues, he said.
The strike comes a day after the military council called on workers to halt strikes, warning that the economic impact of labour protests would be "disastrous", but stopping short of ordering them back to work.
"The Supreme Council is aware of the economic and social circumstances society is undergoing, but these issues cannot be resolved before the strikes and sit-ins end," the state agency quoted military sources as saying. "The result of that will be disastrous," it added.
Thousands of workers at the Misr Helwan Spinning and Weaving company, south of Cairo, continued their strike Wednesday, also demanding higher wages. In the canal city of Ismailiya, government employees of the irrigation, education and health ministries protested outside the province headquarters demanding "fairer salaries", witnesses said.
The political protests that toppled the 30-year-old regime of Egypt's strongman Mubarak have given way to a nationwide "explosion" of pay strikes.
Workers in banking, transport, oil, tourism, textiles, state-owned media and government bodies are striking to demand higher wages and better conditions, said Kamal Abbas of the Centre for Trade Union and Workers' Services. "It's difficult to say exactly how many people are striking and where. Who isn't striking?" Abbas said this week.