Titan Cement workers in Wadi al-Qamar acquitted of company’s charges

The Dekheila Felony Court on June 28, 2016, acquitted all former workers with Alexandria Portland Cement-Titan of charges brought against them by the company in case 23944/2015. The incident in question occurred in February 2013 when several workers at the Titan cement plant, subcontracted to Titan through labor supply companies, staged a sit-in at the company headquarters. The protesting workers demanded wage parity with Titan plant employees, who did the same jobs for much higher wages… some of them had worked at Titan for more than 12 years… The sit-in lasted two days, during which time no company representative came to negotiate with them. At dawn on the third day, Central Security Forces attacked them without prior warning and dispersed the sit-in with force and violence and the protesting workers were arrested. Some workers sustained serious injuries and fractures due to the violent dispersal. The company accused the workers of many charges including damaging company property, engaging in violence, and forcibly detaining company employees… [The workers] said that they lost their jobs, were subjected to insult, incarceration, and physical violence, and some sustained permanent disabilities though they committed no crime save demanding their rights from Titan Cement company.