0:00:03.000,0:00:06.001 [Sign] Raise your voice from among the people; we are sick of all the injustice. 0:00:06.001,0:00:16.002 [Sign] The Nilawiyin district and the motors shop:[br]We call for our rights and the realization of our legitimate demands[br]And we will not return to our homes until we take our rights. 0:00:16.002,0:00:19.003 We are using peaceful pressure right now, 0:00:19.003,0:00:22.004 But the realization of demands does not come without negative pressure. 0:00:22.004,0:00:25.005 We've been stopping people from blocking roads for a while now, 0:00:25.005,0:00:28.006 For a while now we've been stopping them from turning off water and sewage stations, 0:00:28.006,0:00:33.007 If we turned off just a single station, this country would drown in sewage water, it would be catastrophic. 0:00:33.007,0:00:42.008 We want social justice. The revolution was in the name of social justice, do we need one in every corner to realize this? 0:00:42.008,0:00:46.009 Do we need January 25th in every government establishment in order to enact social justice? 0:00:46.009,0:00:49.001 These people here have been sitting in for three weeks, 0:00:49.001,0:00:53.011 They've been eating, sleeping, living in the company. Until now, the authorities ignore us. 0:00:53.011,0:00:56.012 Total silence; it's as if there are no authorities. 0:00:56.012,0:00:59.013 It's as if this sit-in is taking place and no company exists for it, 0:00:59.013,0:01:02.014 As if there's no authorities, no holding company responsible for us. 0:01:02.014,0:01:10.015 The Dakahliya Company was one of the most stable and silent ones, with no unrest, out of concern for the country and its situation and so on, 0:01:10.015,0:01:13.016 But suddenly we're the only ones asked to tighten our belts, 0:01:13.016,0:01:17.017 And the people negotiating with me are all earning tens and hundreds of thousands of pounds, 0:01:17.017,0:01:20.018 Don't they ever tighten their belts? 0:01:20.018,0:01:23.019 They can keep wearing big pants and keep growing, with no need to tighten their belts - that's no problem? 0:01:23.019,0:01:27.002 So the problem is the worker is the one expected to tighten his belt. 0:01:27.002,0:01:33.021 Some days we stay at work from 8 am till 12 am, or 1 or 2 am, 0:01:33.021,0:01:38.022 And sometimes there are pipe explosions that keep you at work till daybreak, 0:01:38.022,0:01:46.023 In the network, if one pipe explodes, you could keep working on it from 8 till midnight, then till the dawn prayers, 0:01:46.023,0:01:49.024 Then when you come to take your wage, you find nothing. 0:01:49.024,0:01:52.025 Those in a position higher than you earn their money, and when you look for your rightful wage, nothing. 0:01:52.025,0:01:58.026 Our contracts are for 4 years. The first 2 years, our salary was 270 pounds, 0:01:58.026,0:02:04.027 One day I was climbing out of the sewer and a car drove over my head, cracking it open, and my colleagues here saw this, 0:02:04.027,0:02:07.028 No one gave a damn. 0:02:07.028,0:02:11.029 And I'm a member here, a worker in the company, insured, with a permanent contract, 0:02:11.029,0:02:18.003 I went to my supervising engineer that evening, I was working the night shift, I went to him at 9 pm, and he told me, "what do you want from me?" 0:02:18.003,0:02:24.031 He told me to look out for myself, to park my bike or a row of rocks to mark my spot, 0:02:24.031,0:02:31.032 No one did anything for me. I had to shoulder the whole thing, paid for my treatment, even though I have insurance. Nothing. 0:02:31.032,0:02:34.033 What did we get? Where are our rights? 0:02:34.033,0:02:39.034 This is my colleague here, he works at Aga, we work together, his name is Mohammed Etman, 0:02:39.034,0:02:43.035 We were working the morning shift together. His leg was cut open, 0:02:43.035,0:02:48.036 And no one gave a damn. The supervisor was useless. They didn't even let him go home,[br]-He didn't let me go home, 0:02:48.036,0:02:51.037 He told me to finish my shift and then go home, or to find someone to replace me. 0:02:51.037,0:02:56.038 One time a colleague called and asked me to fill in for him because his wife was giving birth and he needed to go be with her, 0:02:56.038,0:03:03.039 This indeed happened. Now the water network has 3 or 4 workers and the head of the network, 0:03:03.039,0:03:06.004 We cover about 12 towns, over about 400 square kilometers, 0:03:06.004,0:03:12.041 Meaning we need transportation. Some people work behind a desk and get 7 pounds a day as transport allowance, 0:03:12.041,0:03:20.042 We don't get that allowance. We have to go whenever they call on us, morning or night or whenever there's an emergency. Our official hours are from 8 am till 2 pm, 0:03:20.042,0:03:26.043 Once you go home, just as you're having a bite, they could call on you to come fix something wherever, and we have to go, 0:03:26.043,0:03:33.044 And when we try to file for overtime, they don't like it. 0:03:33.044,0:03:36.045 We have to pay for the nails we use, out of our own money. 0:03:36.045,0:03:43.046 If the maintenance department doesn't have certain spare parts, we go buy them ourselves, 0:03:43.046,0:03:47.047 They say they'll reimburse us. So we give them the receipts, and they say "we have no money"! 0:03:47.047,0:03:50.048 "Where do you want us to get the money to pay you," 0:03:50.048,0:03:56.049 They tell me to bring them a receipt, and I do, so why don't they reimburse us?! 0:03:56.049,0:04:00.005 My friend here has receipts, so do I, so do they, 0:04:00.005,0:04:03.051 We got them for the company. And we still haven't been reimbursed till today. 0:04:03.051,0:04:06.052 So we're taking money out of our own pockets and giving it to the company. 0:04:06.052,0:04:09.053 To say nothing of the cement that we handle with our bare hands, 0:04:09.053,0:04:14.054 They don't hire a digger, they say "why else are you employed here as a worker," 0:04:14.054,0:04:17.055 They say we're supposed to dig. OK fine. Cement, like the road you drive on with a car, 0:04:17.055,0:04:20.056 Can you cut that up with your bare hands?! 0:04:20.056,0:04:23.057 We cut it with our hands! We split it open with drills and hammers. 0:04:23.057,0:04:30.058 Here, our hands are completely blistered from the hand drills and hammers. 0:04:30.058,0:04:38.059 Arbitrary dismissal. 0:04:38.059,0:04:42.006 First of all, we are standing in solidarity with those people who are demanding their rights. 0:04:42.006,0:04:48.061 And we are demanding our rights, for those people who were fired, by General Ahmed Abdeen, 0:04:48.061,0:04:55.062 All of whom were fired for security reasons, not for any dishonorable reasons, just arbitrary dismissal. 0:04:55.062,0:04:58.063 And anyone who has connections gets in, works, and then gets thrown in the street,[br]-[Sign] The Dakahliya company workers demand equality with the holding company and the return of those arbitrarily dismissed. No, no to injustice. And it is our right to return to our work. 0:04:58.063,0:05:01.064 [Sign] The Dakahliya company workers demand equality with the holding company and the return of those arbitrarily dismissed. No, no to injustice. And it is our right to return to our work.[br]-I'm a man responsible for a family, 0:05:01.064,0:05:03.065 [Sign] The Dakahliya company workers demand equality with the holding company and the return of those arbitrarily dismissed. No, no to injustice. And it is our right to return to our work.[br]-And I've nothing but my arm, 0:05:03.065,0:05:07.066 I mean, if I should fall ill or anything should happen to me, how will I help myself, how will I support my household? 0:05:07.066,0:05:10.067 I have nothing. I have no income except for the company. 0:05:10.067,0:05:14.068 And I've been dismissed. And we're here in solidarity with those people from the company. 0:05:14.068,0:05:17.069 Their demand first, and ours to follow. 0:05:17.069,0:05:21.007 We won't let go of our rights. We're demanding our rights, and justice. 0:05:21.007,0:05:30.071 I've been here for 24 years. Every so often, someone dies. Most of them, from Hepatitis C and liver disease. 0:05:30.071,0:05:39.072 I estimate that around 77 percent of those who die in our line of work, before or after retirement age, die from Hepatitis C or liver disease.[br]-Because of the sewage. 0:05:39.072,0:05:49.073 One of our colleagues here had to get two stent insertions, and I know at least 3 people who were blinded, they can't see. 0:05:49.073,0:05:55.074 Because of the sewage. I work on the water network, but the workers in both water and sewage are completely abused and brutalized. 0:05:55.074,0:05:59.075 Ahmed, come here, 0:05:59.075,0:06:04.076 He has two braces, and Hepatitis C, because of the sewage, 0:06:04.076,0:06:08.077 No one stood by his side, no syndicate or management or anything, 0:06:08.077,0:06:13.078 Only his colleagues who - excuse me for being so explicit, Ahmed - only his colleagues, donate something small at the end of each month. 0:06:13.078,0:06:20.079 That's it. But no syndicate helped him, and he had to get two stent insertions in his heart, 0:06:20.079,0:06:23.008 They give to some people, but not to others. 0:06:23.008,0:06:28.081 I've been covering 18 sewage stations for 24 years, in the Markaz district. 0:06:28.081,0:06:38.082 There's pollution, and if a pipeline explodes we can spend up to three days working on it, and we find our bonus is 30 or 40 pounds. 0:06:38.082,0:06:41.083 I mean really, from 20 to 30 pounds, 0:06:41.083,0:06:48.084 It's a monthly thing, and not everyone gets it, this month I didn't get my bonus, 0:06:48.084,0:06:52.085 Why did they cancel it? I don't know. I'm someone who needs to spend 1,050 pounds on treatment every month. 0:06:52.085,0:06:56.086 These two bypass surgeries alone, the medications cost 410 pounds. 0:06:56.086,0:07:01.087 And who's helping me aside from my fellow workers? There's no one in the company, no healthcare, nothing, 0:07:01.087,0:07:04.088 All our rights are destroyed. 0:07:04.088,0:07:14.089 A manager sitting at his desk picks up the phone and orders me to take all the workers to go fix a clogged tank, the main one, 0:07:14.089,0:07:20.009 Meaning its depth is 7 meters, so a worker's blood is on your hands if he dies, 0:07:20.009,0:07:24.091 How can I ask a worker to go so deep into a tank, and you know the worker will actually listen to me and go in, 0:07:24.091,0:07:29.092 I mean and there's no respiratory equipment or oxygen or anything, nothing, 0:07:29.092,0:07:32.093 Nothing hi-tech. They tell you to go get equipment from storage; what equipment?! 0:07:32.093,0:07:36.094 What am I supposed to get - what ventilators? 0:07:36.094,0:07:44.095 Where am I supposed to get a compressor to put down there and give people air to breathe? 0:07:44.095,0:07:48.096 Once I see one of the young workers start to go yellow in the face I tell them to come back up, 0:07:48.096,0:07:53.097 They want to make the workers keep working, and they can keep earning money off their backs, 0:07:53.097,0:07:57.098 That's what happens. And we're up to here in the injustice, already, 0:07:57.098,0:08:00.099 It's not my responsibility. I see the corruption but I can't do anything about it. 0:08:00.099,0:08:04.001 They need to investigate. But they are the ones sending us the corrupt management, 0:08:04.001,0:08:09.101 They replace one with the other here and there, they shift them around, if there's a complaint there they send him to me, 0:08:09.101,0:08:13.102 Then if I discover someone's skill and talent, the company takes someone from me and sends him elsewhere, 0:08:13.102,0:08:17.103 They send him to another company, then they discover him there and he get sent elsewhere, 0:08:17.103,0:08:20.104 Is there no one in the country anymore who can manage these companies?! 0:08:20.104,0:08:23.105 People are standing up for themselves, and are steadfast, and God willing their rights will be realized,[br]-[Sign] The Aga district: all the workers are sitting in until our rights are realized. 0:08:23.105,0:08:27.106 But the depression and despair is because the people we complain to, are themselves corrupt. 0:08:27.106,0:08:30.107 The people we go to and complain, they are themselves corrupt. 0:08:30.107,0:08:38.108 How can you ask the criminal to investigate the victim? They are the ones who killed us. 0:08:38.108,0:08:42.109 [Sign] Raise your voice from among the people; we are sick of all the injustice. 0:08:42.109,0:08:53.011 [Sign] The workers in the water network[br]Equality[br](Right) The holding company in Cairo. (Left) The Dakahliya company for water and sewage treatment.[br]Justice is the foundation of property. 0:08:53.011,9:59:59.000 [Sign] Important notice: no to rumors and divisions in ranks. The sit-in will continue until the realization of our demands.