Behind the 'Spring': Egyptian Labor Law Reform and the Industrial Workers' Movement, 2003-2010

Abstract

The eruption of Arab uprisings has certainly transformed the socio-political scene of contemporary Middle Eastern society. While the uprisings have created the space for political and legal contestation, through for example political party reform, constitutional amendments, and the institution of free and fair elections, they have, to a certain degree, left many of the socio-economic predicaments to a ‘post-transitional’ phase. The role of labor in fueling many of the uprisings seems to be an interesting site that does not only probe questions of ‘civics’ but also questions relating to social status and income disparities. This is reflected in initiatives on labor law reform, labor organizing, independent trade union movements, and the campaign for the institution of a fair minimum wage and its effective legal enforcement. Certainly, the significant contribution of labor movements in the uprisings are embedded within an historical and socio-economic context that created the necessary impetus for a wider movement that culminated in the main squares of Arab capitals. This paper will investigate the role of the Egyptian labor movement in resisting intolerable socio-economic conditions that were effectuated by existing labor legislation, which although problematic in and of itself, provided minimal protections to workers that were never effectively enforced. This was largely the result of a fundamental bias that geared the entire economic system towards privatization, austerity measures, and a more robust investment climate. The paper will specifically examine the most recent labor legislation and the corresponding dynamic in the Egyptian labor movement from 2003, when the Unified Labor Law was finally adopted by parliament after a decade of stalling, followed by the appointment of a neoliberal cabinet in 2004, until January 2011. I will first map out the central arguments on labor legislation, including its theoretical basis, and practical enforcement, proposed by the different actors and observers. Second, I will focus on the Unified Labor Law, adopted in 2003 and its implications combined with the repercussions of Ahmed Nazif’s 2004 neoliberal cabinet, which embarked upon an unrelenting program of privatization, austerity, and curtailment of workers’ rights. Third, I will argue that the extremity of neoliberal policies has reignited the workers’ movement after decades of low-profile activism. In doing that, I bring out the main legal problems facing Egyptian workers including minimum wage enforcement, the law on collective bargaining and trade unions, dismissals, fixed-term contracts, among other issues. Finally, I conclude with the prospects of re-imagining the Unified Labor Law, a step that requires a systemic approach to capital-labor relations, further increasing the role of government regulation and embedding the social component of labor economics and labor law within the macroeconomic national agenda as opposed to a mere philanthropic disposition to labor matters, or as part of corporate governance policy and corporate social responsibility propaganda. While the labor movement was to a great extent behind the eruption of the Egyptian “Spring”, it is pertinent to recognize that it should not be left behind in the post-uprising public agenda.