CAIRO: Security bodies tightly controlled a protest held by Information Centers for Local Development (ICLD) workers before breaking up the demonstration, the Center for Trade Union and Workers Services (CTUWS) said Monday.
Around 1,000 workers initially gathered outside Cairo’s Shoura Council before being forced to assemble outside the nearby Agricultural Development Bank where a tight security barricade surrounded them, according to CTUWS.
“Security bodies prevented workers from leaving the cordoned-off area to buy basic necessities or to go to the toilet, forcing some protestors to ask passers-by to buy them bottles of water and food,” CTUWS said.
Last month some 300 ICLD workers staged a sit-in outside of the Cabinet building in Cairo and demanded an agreement be implemented in May that would increase their wages to a minimum of LE 320 per month and would grant them health insurance and pension benefits.
CTUWS said that ICLD workers broke up their September protest after being promised that the difference between their August, September and October salaries (which were paid at the old rates) — as well as their salaries at the new rate — would be paid to them in October, which has not happened.