Workers' Strikes: A rehearsal for a social explosion waiting in the wings

Only a few days separated significant industrial action at two state-owned companies in Egypt. Both were economically important, both employed impoverished workers, and both were met with official silence. Yet the authorities responded to each dispute in a starkly different way.

The first protest took place at the Canal Mooring & Lights Company in Port Said, which is part of the Suez Canal Authority/SCA. Workers went on strike at the end of October and faced threats of arrest and the closure of the company.

The second protest has been unfolding for more than two weeks at the Drinking Water and Sanitation Company, where the role of the security forces has been limited to observation and surveillance, which has allowed the protests to expand and the list of demands to grow, all against a backdrop of state institutions rattled by a chaotic parliamentary election scene.

Cutting into workers’ profit shares

On the morning of Oct. 29, about 1,500 workers at the Canal Mooring & Lights Company in Port Said launched an all-out strike. They were protesting the decision by the company’s board of directors to amend internal regulations in a way that would slash their profit shares by nearly half.

According to the workers, the new amendment stipulates diverting a percentage of profits to a “disasters and emergencies” fund and for ending the practice of paying out profit shares monthly, as had been the case in past years. Starting in 2027, profit shares would instead be paid annually, at year’s end.

The changes also cut the monthly incentive from 15% to 10%, beginning next month.

When workers from the company’s Suez branch joined in, the strike expanded and turned into an open-ended sit-in.

The company’s management could have opened talks with the workers before approving the new regulations, especially given the steadily deteriorating living conditions all wage earners are experiencing. 

Such a step would have been all the more reasonable given that the SCA’s revenues rose by 11% in July, reaching $359 million, up from about $323 million in the previous year.

Rather than initiating negotiations, potentially led by the Ministry of Labor, the management reverted to the security approach that has dominated for nearly a decade.

As soon as the strike began, security forces threw a tight cordon around the premises, preventing anyone from entering or leaving.

According to the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms/ECRF, striking workers were subjected to “a security cordon and intimidation,” including attempts to herd them into a single area inside the company headquarters.

As threats escalated and word spread that the security forces intended to arrest some of them, workers left the building fearing prosecution. Their representatives had already spent long hours waiting for the outcome of a meeting with the SCA deputy head in Ismailia.

The management closed the company for two days, a move that pushed workers to suspend the strike and return to work.

The ECRF described “the refusal to negotiate directly, the de facto detention of the negotiating delegation for hours, and the on-the-ground intimidation of workers” as a flagrant violation of basic trade union rights.

The underlying reality is that security control still dominates.

Statistics indicate a slow but steady rise in social protests in 2025 compared with the past two years, for now that wage earners have their “backs against the wall.”

Just a show, just a show — same old gang, we know!

Just two weeks after the strike at Canal Mooring and Lights was broken, supporters of losing candidates in the first round of parliamentary elections were chanting, “One, two, where did our votes go? They rigged it, they rigged it,” as pro-government parties traded accusations of monopolizing seats, sidelining rivals, and betraying allies.

The confusion spread to the judiciary, with the Judges Club and the Administrative Prosecution Club lobbing statements back and forth, while the National Elections Authority released its own responses.

Voices from loyalist circles, along with compliant opposition figures, grew louder, hailing the president’s wisdom and his timely intervention to defend the “integrity of the elections.”

Initially, this culminated in reruns in 19 districts from the first stage of the elections, later expanded to 29 districts, a scene that underscored how farcical the process was, even with genuine opposition forces already excluded.

Amid this confusion, which resembled a struggle among sovereign state bodies over spoils, thousands of workers at the Drinking Water and Sanitation Company took to the streets to protest their living conditions.

They revived slogans from labor struggles that preceded the January 2011 revolution, including “Just a show, just a show — same old gang, we know!,” and “Raise your voice, raise your voice — no one dies for making noise!.”

What stood out this time was how limited the security intervention was, in sharp contrast to earlier labor protests.

Several workers said National Security officers attended the rallies, as they did during Mubarak’s final years, but that this time they mainly monitored and even seemed to understand the workers’ demands.

The protests spread to company branches in the governorates of Cairo, Giza, Sharqiya, Beni Suef, and Minya, and escalated into partial strikes affecting bill collection.

These actions reflected deep anger among workers who have given their lives to their jobs, only to find themselves with meager wages, delayed permanent contracts and, above all, bonuses that have been frozen since 2016.

Workers seized on the president’s intervention in the elections and turned it into a chant of their own: “Save us, Mr. President.”

So far, their calls have not reached the presidency or the Ministry of Housing, Utilities, and Urban Communities, the ministry with responsibility for the sector. 

Workers broadened their demands to include removing corrupt leaders from the company. They rejected the incentive package offered by the CEO, saying it did not address their core demands.

They chanted, “Our company is full of thieves,” and warned that if the government keeps ignoring their demands, they will no longer provide essential drinking water and sanitation services to citizens adequately.

Beyond that, the water workers’ protests have begun to ripple into other key sectors, including workers at electricity companies. It seems clear that granting the water workers’ demands would open the tap for protests across Egypt, where workers are hungry for justice and freedom.

Lessons learned

Whatever the eventual outcome of the water company workers’ industrial action, it is unprecedented under the current authoritarian regime in its scale, duration, and the determination of the workers, as well as their ability to challenge the Republic of Fear and reclaim the right to assemble.

The movement can be viewed as a rehearsal for a broader social explosion waiting in the wings, aimed at confronting policies of austerity, impoverishment, and repression.

According to some estimates, wages now account for just 22% of the country’s gross domestic product, while capital takes 78%—a sign of widening inequality. In the 1980s, wages’ share was about 40%. Around a decade ago, it was about 25%. The trend is moving in the wrong direction.

Most likely, the current turmoil inside the ruling coalition will not last long. The various parties are expected to fall back in line behind the president as they prepare for constitutional amendments to open the door to additional presidential terms.

At the moment, the regime faces no serious political, popular, or external pressure. Yet, the country is heading toward even harsher austerity. The World Bank is talking about the need to repay about $50 billion in deposits, debts, and interest next year, 2026, on top of domestic debt.

That will mean more asset sales, more pressure on ordinary people, and likely more borrowing simply to service existing debts.

Yet the current political scene also lays bare the depth of anger and growing resentment among wide segments of the population. These groups need the backing and solidarity of political elites, because they are both the target of change and the force that can bring it about.