Workers at Samanoud Textile and Wabariyat Company in Gharbiya governorate rejected promises from company officials and National Security personnel, insisting not to end their strike. They will remain off the job until health insurance services, suspended since January, are restored, according to two workers who spoke to Al Manassa.
One worker, who requested anonymity, said two police wagons have been stationed outside the factory since the strike began on Monday, while more than three National Security officers have been inside the plant trying to persuade workers to end the strike by saying the issue is close to being resolved. The workers refused, she said.
She added that the company’s director gathered department supervisors and asked them to convince workers to return to work, promising the health insurance crisis would be resolved by the end of July. Workers also rejected that offer.
Since January, more than 600 workers, most of them women, have been denied medical services because of the company’s accumulated debts to the National Organization for Social Insurance, despite continued deductions for insurance contributions from employees’ wages.
Many suffer from chronic illnesses, including diabetes, hypertension, and asthma, and their monthly medications have been cut off.
A second worker told Al Manassa that two colleagues in the weaving department need surgery. After losing hope that health insurance services would resume, they turned to a private hospital, where they learned one operation would cost 70,000 Egyptian pounds (about $1,400) and the other 40,000 pounds (about $800).
They postponed both procedures. She said management is aware of their condition but has done nothing.
One of these workers, who also spoke to Al Manassa, said she has diabetes and needs a weekly injection costing up to 150 pounds ($3). “There’s a cheaper type of injection, but I can’t find it,” she said.
“One of our colleagues has rheumatoid arthritis and needs medication that costs 6,000 pounds ($120) a month. If she doesn’t take it, she can’t stand on her feet. Where are we supposed to get that kind of money? Or are we just supposed to die from our illnesses?” she added.
Samanoud Wabariyat management issued a statement calling on employees to return to work, citing “the negative impact on revenues needed to meet regular financial obligations and strengthen customer confidence.”
The company said it had been working to resolve the health insurance crisis from the outset through contacts with relevant ministries and the Social Insurance Authority. It also said the chairman of the Arab Investment Bank, which owns the company, had pledged to cover health care costs for critical cases.
The workers rejected the statement, according to the two employees who spoke to Al Manassa, denying its claims that management had been working to resolve the crisis or had covered treatment costs for any critically ill workers.
“One part of the statement lectures us about applying the minimum wage, even though that’s our right guaranteed by the state. We spent years demanding it through strikes, sit-ins, and seeing our colleagues jailed. We had to fight to get it,” one worker said.
In April, Samanoud textile workers staged a full strike over delays in receiving their March salaries and demanded the restoration of health insurance services.
They rejected an offer to end the strike in exchange for 50% of their March pay, insisting on full payment and a permanent solution to repeated salary delays and the practice of paying wages in installments throughout the month.
Earlier, on March 11, workers in the company’s garment department staged protests, including demonstrations and a partial strike, demanding an end to the situation.
Those protests later grew into a strike involving all workers, which ended on March 18 after they received their full February salary and management promised regular wage payments and the return of health insurance services, promises that were never fulfilled.
The company’s workers have faced repeated violations in recent years. In April 2025, management applied the minimum wage only to administrative staff and department supervisors, sparking anger from other workers. Although the company later extended the minimum wage to everyone, workers told Al Manassa it still violated the rules by counting allowances and overtime as part of the minimum wage.
On Aug. 18 last year, Samanoud Textiles workers went on strike for 35 days to demand implementation of the minimum wage, before ending the action under threats of dismissal and imprisonment.
During the strike, authorities arrested 10 workers, including labor leader Hesham El-Banna, accusing them of “inciting a strike, unlawful assembly, and attempting to overthrow the regime.” Prosecutors later ordered their detention for 15 days before they were subsequently released. El-Banna was later arbitrarily dismissed.
