Cairo seminar develops union relations with global delivery companies
Egyptian postal workers have been forging links with most of the private postal, express, courier and logistics companies operating in Egypt in a seminar sponsored by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation and supported by UNI Global Union, Egypt Post and the Egyptian Ministry of Communications. At the opening today nine of the main global delivery companies operating in Egypt were present and contributed to a lively debate on why the General Union of Egyptian Postal Workers had called for the seminar to meet with Egypt Post and the private global delivery companies to develop better relations and to start organising a union presence in these companies. The seminar was addressed by the Chairman of Egypt Post Dr Ashraf Zaki, the Vice Presidents of the two Egyptian Trade Union Federations, the Egyptian Federation of Trade Unions and the Trade Unions Federation of the 10th of Ramadan City, the FES, and Neil Anderson Head of UNI Post & Logistics Global Union.
In the interventions all agreed that the Egyptian postal industry was moving into a new era with many changes taking place and an increase in the parcels, courier and express business and a huge new demand for digital postal services. A number of private global delivery companies also made interventions including TNT, First Service, FedEx, and Tawasol about how and why they should develop better relations with the Egyptian Postal Workers Union. UNI and the FES both expressed their disappointment that one of the companies that has a big presence in Egypt, DHL, was absent but UNI indicated that they were trying to develop a global agreement with this company and that the support of the Egyptian Postal Workers and the Ministry of Communications would be important in the campaign to ensure companies such as DHL respected workers rights.
The Ministry of Communications in Egypt is making every effort to have a cohesive and comprehensive approach to developing the global delivery industry in the region and now has three monthly meetings with all the industry players, including Egypt Post, the private companies and the unions. Their spokesperson said the government supported an industry where workers were represented. President of the General Postal Workers Union, Nasr Abdel-hamid Nasr said the union wanted to develop better relations with the global delivery industry and to lead the way in the region to show how unions and all postal operators could work together.
The seminar which was attended by more than 50 participants and a large number of local press will continue for a second day hen there will be presentations from the ILO and the Egyptian Workers University.