The global union movement is demanding Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak immediately stop the violence being organized by his regime against peaceful demonstrators, including children and thousands of trade unionists.

Sharan Burrow, general secretary off the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), which includes the AFL-CIO, said:

The Egyptian president and government must listen to the legitimate demands of the massive number of peaceful demonstrators. These people represent the wide spectrum of Egyptian society, including the independent trade unions, and the repression against them is totally unacceptable. The authorities must put in place the measures necessary to ensure a peaceful transition to genuine democracy without any further delay.

The ITUC also charges that Mubarak’s regime is instructing government employees to join the violence against those seeking change, as well as dismissing employees who have joined the peaceful protest movement.

The desire by Egyptian workers to have their own voices through their unions played a key role in laying the groundwork for the protests, says Samer Shehata, a professor at Georgetown University (see video). In an interview with Laura Flanders at GRITtv, Shehata says that although workers are not leading the current protests, they set the stage with a tsunami of economic and labor protests beginning in 2004.

If Egypt becomes a democracy in the future, Shehata says he believes labor will play a large role. The strong involvement of unions in the protests is evidenced, he says, by the huge protests taking place in areas with large numbers of workers.

The independent Egyptian union movement has gained support around the world. Last year the AFL-CIO presented the George Meany-Lane Kirkland Human Rights Award to Egyptian union leaders Kamal Abbas and Kamal Abu Eita.

Abbas is general coordinator of the Center for Trade Union and Workers Services (CTUWS) and Eita heads the Real Estate Tax Authority Workers (RETA), the first independent trade union in Egypt in more than 50 years. The Egyptian government has not formally recognized RETA but has ignored its application for recognition.