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Chant: 'Striking is legitimate, against poverty and hunger'
We started the strike because we have no money and no one is recognising us
We don't know if we're part of the governorate, or part of the ministry
The minimum wage was applied to other state workers but not to us, no one gives us anything
The poverty line, in any country, is 1600 le. So when we are demanding the minimum wage of 1200,
We're still going to be under the poverty line. We'll be able to live, but in poverty still
We are demanding to know whether we will get the minimum wage or not.
This is my pay slip, look, I've been working for 13 years here until today
And this is my net salary - not even 450 le. And I have 3 children
We want to feel social justice, we want to eat, to get clothes, to find housing
If you start working today you'll get maybe 850 le per month. If you look for a flat you'll find it for 600 le
There are realistic figures I'm not exaggerating. What will you have left to spend?
These people aren't talking about money, they just want to live
No public transport worker at the end of the month has a pound left over from the previous month
Every time we speak to someone from the state they say 'you're not under our authority'
We speak to the governor, or the minister of transport, and we get the same thing
We need to know who we officially come under so we can speak with them
Who are we subject to? This is our demand. We want to know, and we've been demanding this since 2009
When people ask why we're striking today, it's because we were given promises before
They said wait until a new government comes, a new president came and went and nothing changed
Now we're in a new crisis
What ministry do we come under? You have 53,000 public transport workers who still don't know
These are the words of the new PM, Dr. Mehleb, 'I will go and negotiate'
Well we're here, public transport workers, ready for this. Not for negotiations because we are not
placing conditions. But we are ready to listen to serious talk, honest talk, not lies
We are given promises, so we return to work, the promises aren't held, so we strike again
We get more promises, we stop the strike, then the promises are broken again
Most people think we strike, get money, then later strike again. But we've never got anything
Even from the days of Mona (Mostafa) who said she'd give us an extra 200le if we went back to work
This never happened, we received nothing
It's the same reasons as before, and the same results as before
Governments make promises then break them. They lie, and the result is fail, fail fail.
The army, instead of solving our problems, decided to send out the buses themselves
We thank them for solving the problems of the people,
but the problems of 40,000 public transport workers they've just ignored
Since the revolution, we've had six different governments, from all the colours of the spectrum
They take an official out, and replace him, remove one, replace him with another
But the policies are the same: The powerful loot, and the poor get buried.