Workers' mobilizations and independent trade unionism in Egypt after the 2011 uprising

Résumé 0

From 2011 to 2014, the successive powers—the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, presidents Morsi and Sisi—worked to put an end to strikes, to limit the impact of the new independent trade unions, and to restrict workers' rights, especially in firms that had come under the control of the Army. They also repressed lawyers and human rights activists defending the workers. Thanks to aid following the 50 percent depreciation of the Egyptian pound in 2016 and his pragmatic handling of the riots caused by price rises, Sisi was able to contain the social unrest. The relative failure of the independent trade unions can be seen both in the division between competing leaders and in the blackmail of the sacred union, claimed by both the Army and the Muslim Brotherhood, in the name of the martyrs and the economic revival. More profoundly, the 2011 “revolution” has not shaken the paternalism of the social pact inherited from Nasserism: since labor remains devalued, its organizations must serve society before the workers.