The Birth of First-Ever Independent Trade Union

Together For Unleashing Trade Union Liberties Campaign Hisham Mubarak Law Center The Coordinating Committee for Labor Rights and Liberties The Birth of First-Ever Independent Trade Union 500 Workers Deposit Establishment Papers to the Labor Forces Ministry The General Trade Union of Real Estate Tax Collectors Includes 26 Union Committees Nationwide with 33 Thousand Members The social and political history will inevitably remember the day of April 21, 2009 as the day when the Egyptian working class was able to create the first-ever independent trade union after so many years of state hegemony and confiscation, which had begun with July Revolution until now. Throughout two years of struggle, the Real Estate Tax Collectors managed to establish their own trade union that adopts their demands. Today morning around 500 workers, representing 26 union committees nationwide with 33 thousand members, gathered in front of the Labor Forces Ministry along with the activists Kamal Abou Eta and Abdel Qader Nada. The workers converged in front of the Ministry building in Nasr city at 10 a.m. In the beginning the Ministry's employees refused to receive the establishment papers, but the Minister of Labor Forces, who attended later, accepted the papers after discussing the issue and deposited the establishment papers according to article 63 of the Trade Union Act No 35 of 1976. So, the trade union has been registered according to the law and has the right to exercise activities, open offices nationwide, to represent its workers before all, and not to be forbidden from all these rights except by a court verdict. According to the law, opposing a trade union creation belongs to the administrative body and the Egyptian Trade Union Federation. If they see any deficiencies in creation procedures, they have, according to the law, to notify formally the fledgling trade union within 30 days. And if the given trade union doesn't rectify the alleged mistakes within 30 days as of notifying date, the opposing entity has the right to file a lawsuit for nullifying the creation procedures before the partial court within the ensuing 30 days. But according to the law the fledgling trade union has very right to exercise its activities until a court verdict says otherwise. The undersigned organizations not only congratulate the working class and particularly the real estate tax collectors on this historic victory, but also they urge Egyptian workers to seize the opportunity of the moment to establish their trade unions away from the official Federation. The undersigned organizations: Together For Unleashing Trade Union Liberties Campaign Hisham Mubarak Law Center The Coordinating Committee for Labor Rights and Liberties The High Committee for Defending Education Staff Rights The Workers South Cairo Mills Company