According to the English language website of Al Masry Al Youm, Egyptian workers across the country have been demanding the establishment of trade unions and professional syndicates/associations that are democratically elected, accountable and recallable.
In Cairo, thousands of Public Transport Authority workers are demanding the establishment of independent trade union committees beyond the confines of the state-controlled Egyptian Trade Union Federation (ETUF). Some 20,000 public-sector Mahalla Textile Company workers have also raised the same demands.
http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/news/workers-professionals-demand-independent-labor-unions
Meanwhile the Mahalla workers' strike last week resulted in the military interim government - which had initially threatened to use force to break the strike - instead granting many concessions to the workers, including the dismissal of the factory's boss, a 25% pay rise - and an agreement to pay the workers for the days they were on strike!
While some press sources quote Egyptian workers saying that they do not want to put the 'revolution' at risk by imposing "too many demands" on the interim government, others describe the strike at Mahalla, and others, as having broken through the legal restrictions being imposed on industrial action by the military.
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