من تاريخ حركة مهندسون ضد الحراسه

WSWS : Workers Struggles Around the World
Workers Struggles: Europe, the Middle East and Africa
26 March 2004
Egyptian engineers threaten to strike
Engineers across Egypt have organized a march to the People’s Assembly on March 27. The workers have also threatened to go on strike if their demands for reform are not met.
The Engineers’ Union has been under government supervision and prevented from holding elections since 1995. Following the election victory for candidates from opposition parties, especially the Islamists, in the union’s council elections, the government imposed custody. Nearly 140,000 engineers of the 320,000 union members were denied their right to vote.
Thousands of union members called this week for the resignation of the custodians imposed by the government to pave the way for new elections. The union has also threatened to blacklist the five custodians, notably Dr Ahmed Moharram, a former minister of housing.
The protest by the group, calling themselves Engineers Against Custody, sought to hold a conference at the Engineers’ Union, but the judicial custodian refused. Thousands of troops surrounded the union headquarters, forcing the engineers to use the Lawyer’s Union premises instead.
Egyptian trade unions have witnessed increased activity since the early 1980s, after the government restricted the formation of political parties by imposing an Emergency Law. The government then resorted to imposing judicial custody on the doctors, engineers, lawyers and pharmacists’ unions when elections brought control over them to members from the opposition.
According to statistics by Engineers Against Custody, Egyptian engineers have lost their prominent status internationally and regionally because of the custody imposed on their union. Among international posts they lost were the presidency of the Arab Engineers’ Union and the Engineers’ Organization Union in Islamic countries and the post of vice-president for the Engineering Consultant Offices.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/testdir/mar2004/lab-m26.shtml