English text

Stop military trial for Alexandria Shipyard workers and release them immediately!

We are very raged to hear the news that 26 Alexandria Shipyard workers are facing military trials. Their demand for overdue bonuses, wage increases, permanent contracts for temporary workers and etc. are just and fair and it is globally acknowledged that workers have rights to stage protest and/or strike as the means to achieve their demands. However, Egyptian authorities are trying the workers by military court by exploiting the fact that the ownership of the company had been moved to an organization affiliated with the Armed Forces, and we cannot but interpret that the aim of such act is to suppress workers' just resistance with coercion and violence.
The rights for workers to stage protest and/or strike as the means of resistance are becoming increasingly valuable under the current circumstance where the people of all countries are suffering from the global economic crisis. However, faced with the global crisis, the governments across the world are taking sides with the bosses and want to block the workers' resistance. That is the reason why we are witnessing the rights to stage protest and/or strike being oppressed in many countries. We are experiencing very similar situation. South Korea's Park Geun-hye government have jailed Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) president Han Sang-gyun for the leading the workers' protest against the government's attack on wage, employment, working condition and general democracy. Therefore, the sufferings in which the Egyptian workers are going through for their just struggle are not disconnected with our own.
Moreover, we are well-aware of from our own history in which the workers have put to an end to military dictatorship and built KCTU that even the most brutal government cannot stop the workers and people pushing the wheel of the history forward. Under such reasoning KCTU have supported Egyptian workers' effort to self-organize including the Egyptian Federation of Independent Trade Unions (EFITU) in the midst of the revolution that toppled the dictator Mubarak in early 2011; have denounced mass murder against the civilians by the military on August, 2013; have repeatedly demanded that the Egyptian authorities should drop all the death sentences, guarantee the freedom of press and protest, and release all political prisoners.
Just as the advance for Egyptian workers encourages the advance for Korea workers, we feel very painful for all the Egyptian workers' suffering. We, the undersigned, would like to deliver our grave warning to the Egyptian authorities that workers and people will rise against the repression and we demand the followings:
*Stop military trial for Alexandria Shipyard workers and release them immediately!
*Egypt authorities should guarantee all the rights for the workers to organize independently and to take actions.

Signed
KCTU Acting President Choi Jong Jin
KCTU Secretary General Lee Young-joo