World union supports Egyptian dock strike

Dockers in the Egyptian port of Sokhna set to strike from tomorrow are receiving support from the International Transport Workers' Federation, which represents 4.5 million workers in the transport industry worldwide.

The 1,200 port workers in Sokhna, on the southern approach to the Suez canal, are demanding that their employer, Dubai Ports World, implement an agreement dating from last October to settle pay compensation claims including hardship allowances. A three-day sit-in started on 9 February, during which time port operations continued. Talks between the union, DPW management and parliament members broke down yesterday; from tomorrow, 11 February, there will be an indefinite strike.

Now the ITF has thrown its weight behind the Egyptian workers. The global union federation has called on Eqypt's prime minister Kamal al-Ganzouri and Sokhna's top manager Captain Rustom Dastoor to help bring about a solution to the dispute, and it has asked its transport union members to keep a close eye on developments. In September, the army was used to evacuate all workers from the port during a go-slow and members of the union board were detained for several hours.

Bilal Malkawi of the ITF Arab World office commented: "The situation in the port has now escalated and the union had no option but to take industrial action after discussions ended without positive results. The ITF is standing firmly behind the union and is calling on its affiliates to do the same."