Labor movements granted human rights award

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.thedailynewsegypt.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=121846&catid=1&Itemid=183

By Sarah Carr /Daily News Egypt August 6, 2010, 2:46 pm


CAIRO: An award honoring labor movements and their leaders was given to the workers of Egypt on Tuesday in Washington, D.C.

The American Federation of Labor and Congress and Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), a voluntary federation of 56 national and international labor unions, awarded the Meany-Kirkland Human Rights Award to the Egyptian workers’ movement “in recognition of its extraordinary courage and perseverance in the face of substantial state repression.”

Kamal Abbas, director of the Center for Trade Union and Worker Services (CTUWS), and Kamal Abu Eita, president of the independent Real Estate Tax Authority Union (RETA), accepted the award on behalf of workers in a ceremony held in Washington, D.C.

In a statement issued in March, AFL-CIO calls the unprecedented wave of labor strikes and protests which have emerged since 2004 “the most significant social movement in the Arab world since World War II, and the largest labor unrest in Egypt since the late 19th century. Egyptian workers are continuing to challenge their employers, their unions and their nation’s government.”

FULL story at link.