21 political and labor entities, local and foreign NGOs along with more than 400 workers, employees, professionals, trade unions and academics are in solidarity to release 14 workers at Alexandria Shipyard Company who were detained in Alexandria.
Since last May 14, 26 workers were put on military trial for charges of refraining from the work, and inciting strikes.
The solidarity petition with Alexandria Shipyard Company workers was singed before the court’s ruling session that was scheduled on September 18. However, the court ruling was postponed to October 18 with the continuous detainment of the workers.
Among the petition signatories were : The Bread and Freedom Party, the Masr al Qaweya Party (Strong Egypt), the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, the Revolutionary Socialists, Toward a Just Labor Law campaign, Workers’ Struggle Current, and the Independent General Union for Tourism Workers.
The solidarity petition has announced its full support to Alexandria Shipyard Company workers for being exposed as civilians to military trials. In fact, the factory’s administration was transferred from a Holding Company for Maritime Transportation to the Egyptian Armed Forces in 2007, as the company’s new owner.
It’s noteworthy that Egyptian labor law stipulates that workers preserve their working privileges and conditions if their working facility was moved from one owner to another.
The petition also announced its full solidarity with the legitimate demands of the workers as acquiring their late earnings, appointing permanently those who have met the legal limit, giving the deserved ones their stalled promotions, and above all, improve production, operation and work safety such as protection from occupational injuries such as burns to stop the casualties as a result of industrial security negligence.
In the same context, activists from South Korea, Greece, UK, and US have organized a Solidarity Day titled: “The Storm” to support the detained workers. They published on “Solidarity with Egypt” Facebook Page that important Labor Unions in the United Kingdom at Portsmouth Port along with workers at Piraeus Port in Greece announced their support to Alexandria Shipyard Company Workers.
According to a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report released in 2016, military courts have tried at least 7,420 Egyptian civilians since October 2014, when Abdel Fattah al-Sisi decreed a new law that expanded military court jurisdiction.
