Egypt unrest goes on with pay strikes

In a desperate attempt to get the country back towards normality, the ruling military council made a public plea for the strikers to return to work.

The thousands of state employees, from ambulance drivers to police and transport workers joined a growing wave of labour unrest unleashed by the uprising that removed president Hosni Mubarak, who bowed to pressure to step down on Friday.

Soldiers cleared the area except for a small group of holdout protesters after more than two weeks of round-the-clock demonstrations. Protesters had turned the area into a tent camp, complete with a medical clinics, a makeshift jail, and food stalls.

Outside the TV and state radio building, public transport workers demanded better pay. Several hundred protesters from the state Youth and Sports Organization also pushed similar demands, while across the Nile in the Giza district, hundreds of ambulance drivers staged a protest, also to demand better pay and permanent jobs. Hundreds of policemen also demonstrated for better pay for a second day in central Cairo.

The ruling military council that took over power from Mubarak on Friday has said that security and a return to normality are its priorities. It has called on Egyptians to return to work to save the economy after hundreds of thousands of foreign tourists fled the country in hurried evacuation flights – a major blow to the country’s biggest economic sector.

But the success of the demonstrations in ousting Mubarak has fuelled demonstrations across the Middle East. In Yemen more than 1,000 anti-government protesters marched through the capital for a fourth consecutive day yesterday, demanding political reforms and the removal of the president.