Egypt's labor movement blooms in Arab Spring

[blindpig]

Egypt's labor movement blooms in Arab Spring



CAIRO — Here in a nation that long outlawed strikes and largely judged independent unions to be enemies of the state, a juggernaut labor movement is flourishing in the light of the Arab Spring.

The ruling military council, which assumed power after the fall of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, issued a renewed ban on strikes in April. But in recent days, it has been resoundingly defied by empowered labor leaders and burgeoning bands of new Egyptian unionists who are striking in massive numbers not seen here since the first weeks of the revolution.

The fast-spreading strikes amount to a serious test for the interim government over the parameters of freedom of expression in the new Egypt. The strikes are threatening the fragile economy, described by observers as a ticking time bomb, with the government bleeding cash reserves and Egypt losing foreign investment. Economists are warning against granting broad public-sector raises to satisfy labor demands given that Egypt’s gaping budget deficit is now as large as the one in troubled Greece.

But the military council is being forced to calculate whether a crackdown on the strikes would simply ignite more unrest, while lending truth to charges that little has changed since Mubarak fell in February.

more....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/egypts-labor-movement-blooms-in-arab-spring/2011/09/25/gIQAj6AfwK_story.html

[catabryna]

1. Recommended for the content of the article, but not the photo.

This photo is not the same one that accompanies the original article.

[blindpig]

2. Huh?

Is so, click on it.

Edit: When I went back to the link I had register.

[catabryna]

4. Go to the Washington Post website.

If you scroll down, you will find, on the right-hand side, an option to read the paper in its original printed version. You can read it everyday for no charge without registering for anything.

You can find the original article in the "A Section", Page A9. You can also see the photo that accompanies the article.

Hope this helps.

[Starry Messenger]

3. k&r

[polly7]

5. k & r

(I see the same photo as you have here when I go to the article.)

[blindpig]

6. kick