English: The governor read out loud in a mike what the govt has agreed up on, while Ahmad el-Sawy of the NDP held the mic:

1-The workers were to be paid 21-day bonus (not the initial 15 days offered by the management nor the 45 days the workers wanted.) But the food allowance was to be raised from LE32 to LE42.5. That will be applied retroactively from 1 July 2006, so actually the workers ended up with more than their 45 day bonus. 2-The government would buy a new ambulance car for the company’s medical clinic. The Ministry of Health would also send “medical caravans” to the factory to treat the emergency cases. 3-The freeze on promotions will be revoked; the workers’ pursuit of school and university degrees would also be taken into consideration when determining the promotions. 4-Pricing production items will be changed to match the current prices in the market. That’s expected to increase the bonuses. 5-Strike days will not be deducted from the workers’ salaries, and no victimization would follow. The workers kept cheering their victory. But some angry shouts could still be heard among some denouncing the fact that some of the strikers’ demands were not met. Still over all the mood was EUPHORIC! The workers were also excited to see activists and journalists from Cairo. They treated us with all respect. They were thrilled to know their news were trickling into the rest of the republic and to the outside world. Four of the strike leaders insisted on inviting me, two Socialist journalists and an American reporter to tea at one of Kafr el-Dawwar’s coffee shops. We walked through the muddy streets, decorated by hills of garbage, till we reached the Qahwa. We exchanged conversation, jokes with the victorious workers. I was impressed by their militancy and how they ran the strike efficiently. The strike leaders told us they formed security teams to patrol the factory to make sure no sabotage happens. They recalled bitterly how SS infiltrated the factory during the 1994 strike and set part of it on fire to give the excuse to the police troops to storm the factory with live ammunition, killing a number of the strikers and their family members. The strike leaders also scoffed the allegations that the MB instigated the strike. They also said this strike was just the beginning, as there are issues still undealt with, including the corruption of the local union officials, and the fears of further lay offs. The factory used to have a total labor force of around 28,000 workers at 1993. Now they dropped to 11,700, and there are plans, we are told, to get rid of another 4000 soon by early retirement packages. The hospitality and sincerity of the Kafr el-Dawwar workers almost brought me to tears. I was talking to workers who make less than LE300 a month… They wanted to buy us Kebab sandwiches. “That’s impossible. You can’t squander the food allowance you just gained on Cairene and American journalists,” I joked with one. He laughed, but then said, “If reporters had not showed up in town and spread the news about us, the govt might not have hesitated to shoot us again.” I hopped with a couple of friends later into a cab, to go to the bus station, from where we can take a ride to Cairo. The cab driver was excited to see journalists in his town. He told us his brother was a worker at the factory. He was on vacation resting at his home, but when the strike happened, he decided to cut his vacation, and rushed to join the strikers. The driver also told us how the families were demonstrating in town over the past week in solidarity with their loved ones inside the factory. When security tried to starve the strikers out, the families clashed with the security troops several times, the cab driver told us, and found ways like putting loafs of bread in baskets and throw them using ropes into the factory so their brethren inside could feed themselves and continue striking.

Before dropping us off, the driver told us if the govt had harmed his brother in any way, or decided to shoot at the strikers again, he was planning to drive his cab into a police crowd at the gates, to kill them and kill himself. I know I’ll be a martyr then. It’s better to die and take those criminals with me, than live starving, in humiliation and see my family being attacked by the police.”