Six thousand Egyptian T&C Garments workers strike for higher wages to cope with rising prices

David Johnson Egypt 31 January 2025

Six thousand Egyptian T&C Garments workers went on strike on 16th January. They demanded a 50% increase in annual bonus to cope with rising prices; a raise in meal allowances and their payment during Ramadan when working hours are extended; implementation of the legal minimum wage; permission for discretionary leave and paid public holidays.

The workers currently take home between LE4,000 and LE5,000 per month, substantially below the LE6,000 private sector minimum wage set in May 2024. Inflation in 2024 was 24% with many essentials rising more than that.

Workers who fall ill or are injured on the job have to pay for their own treatment. If they need sick leave, they are paid a quarter of their daily wage.

The company tried to break the strike using ‘divide and rule’. It stopped transport into the factories, then restoring it for some, mostly female, departments. This failed and was followed by police arresting 26 workers, with a large group of police and security forces stationed outside the factory. Families gathered outside the police station where they were held. Switching tactics again, the company offered a 17% bonus increase, which the workers rejected.

The strike ended on 28th January. The Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights reported the company offered a 20% rise but with 10 days pay deducted. They also threatened to close the factories and sack the workforce.

The company has also prohibited the formation of an independent workers’ union. Instead, the company presents a group of individuals loyal to management as ‘worker representatives’ during visits from partner brands. The company management falsely claims that workers receive all their legally entitled benefits.

Hypocritically, T&C claims it has “core values of integrity and honesty. We practice transparency with all our stakeholders, clients and partners. We remain consistently ethical and open to fully disclose information.”

T&C Garments, a joint venture between Turkish Tay Group and Egyptian Tolba Group, supplies clothing to global brands, including Levis, UNIQLO and Tommy Hilfiger. Its factories in El-Obour City, 35km from Cairo, are in a ‘Qualifying Industrial Zone’ (QIZ). From here goods can directly access U.S. markets without tariff or quota restrictions, provided they contain a small portion of Israeli input.

QIZs were established in 1996 after the Oslo Accords signed by the Israeli state and the Palestine Liberation Organisation, backed by the US. As well as six zones in Egypt, QIZs exist in Jordan and the West Bank.

Trump’s ‘friends and foes’ With US President Trump now issuing threats of trade tariffs against ‘friends’ and ‘foes’, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi may be worrying about the continuation of strong backing he and his regime have had from successive US presidents. Trump’s unstable changes of direction mean the $1.3billion from the US to Egypt’s military in 2024 cannot be taken for granted (although, along with military aid to Israel, it has been confirmed for now despite the freeze of other US foreign aid).

However, Egypt’s $130million annual US development aid was frozen pending a 90-day review. It is mostly linked to health, education, agriculture, climate and energy projects.

Urging Egypt and Jordan resettle a million and a half Palestinians from Gaza, Trump told reporters on 27th January, “I wish [Sisi] would take some. We helped them a lot, and I’m sure he’d help us. He’s a friend of mine. He’s in … a rough neighbourhood. But I think he would do it, and I think the king of Jordan would do it too.”

Sisi has previously ruled out any such move, even during the humanitarian disaster of the past 15 months of bombing and destruction in Gaza. An area of Sinai desert adjacent to the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt was wired off for possible emergency use by displaced Palestinians. It would have been no more than another prison-like refugee camp.

Sisi fears allowing Palestinians to resettle in Egypt in large numbers would place even greater strain on chronically underfunded health, education and other services. With rising discontent against his regime because of falling living standards, more destabilising factors could spark a new uprising that could lead to his downfall, despite police repression.

Accepting large numbers of Palestinians into Egypt would also be seen as abandoning hope for a Palestinian state, which would greatly increase anger among Arab masses throughout the Middle East and North Africa.

For now, Sisi will hope he can come to an arrangement with Trump that avoids provoking the Egyptian working class into action against the Cairo regime. Sis’s regime is also looking more towards co-operation and support from China, which could in turn lead to new tension with the US government.

But as the T & C Garments strike shows, workers may be starting to see they need to take action themselves to improve their lives and that Sisi will not do it for them. This means laying the foundations for independent trade unions and a mass workers’ party, with the socialist programme needed to end poverty, repression and war throughout the region.
https://www.socialistworld.net/2025/01/31/six-thousand-egyptian-tc-garments-workers-strike-for-higher-wages-to-cope-with-rising-prices/?

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