Thursday March 28th, 2024
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Public Transport Workers Strike

Egypt's public transport workers are on the third day of their strike, demanding to be included in the minimum wage plan...

Staff Writer

Egypt's public transport workers are on day number three of their strike, which started Saturday, demanding to be included in the state's minimum wage scheme. Our fair country isn't exactly known for its stellar public transport system, but even with 300-year-old buses that barely function (we're all about antiquities), they are certainly vital to helping the general population get around and, wouldn’t you know it, contribute to our country's income. And with all 28 garages in Greater Cairo on strike at the moment, it's definitely causing a dent in revenues with a loss of approximately 800,000 LE for the Public Transport Authority so far.

The primary issue is that the minimum wage scheme encompasses the state's administrative apparatus but fails to include state-owned businesses and independent economic authorities, which the Public Transport Authority falls under. When it comes to these, it is up to them to implement the minimum wage but they have to rely on their own budgets and as you can imagine, that's not exactly overflowing with excess funds. As such, any increase in salaries would have to be paid by the government.

Workers have expressed a willingness to suspend the strike if the government is receptive to their demands but in the absence of this, they plan to escalate the strikes by involving maintenance workers as well.

If our roads are lacking in public buses, who will bully us on the streets with their sheer size and make every drive entertaining? And seeing as a bus which could take let's say, 50 people, in Egypt has the magical ability to expands to accommodate seven times that, we can imagine it's going to affect a pretty large portion of the population if this strike continues.