Kamal Abu Eita (also spelled ''Abu 'Ayta''; ar, كمال أبو عيطة) is a long-time

Egyptian Egyptian describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of years of ...

trade unionist and former government minister. As a civil servant at the Real Estate Tax Authority, Abu Eita led a successful struggle for trade union autonomy against the state-controlled Egyptian Trade Union Federation (ETUF) during the

Mubarak regime The history of Egypt under Hosni Mubarak spans a period of 29 years, beginning with the 1981 assassination of President Anwar Sadat and lasting until the Egyptian revolution of January 2011, when Mubarak was overthrown in a popular uprising as ...

. A prominent figure during the

2011 Egyptian Revolution The 2011 Egyptian revolution, also known as the 25 January revolution ( ar, ثورة ٢٥ يناير; ), began on 25 January 2011 and spread across Egypt. The date was set by various youth groups to coincide with the annual Egyptian "Police ho ...

he helped found the country's first independent union confederation, the Egyptian Federation of Independent Trade Unions (EFITU). Elected to the People's Assembly following the democratic parliamentary election of 2011-12, Abu-Eita served as

Minister of Manpower and Immigration The minister of immigration, refugees and citizenship (french: Ministre de l'immigration, des réfugiés et de la citoyenneté) is a minister of the Crown in the Cabinet of Canada, Canadian Cabinet. The minister is Responsible government, resp ...

between July 2013 and March 2014.

Pre-January 25 Revolution

As a long-time activist, he organized labor movements and led the challenge against the state-affiliated

Egyptian Trade Union Federation The Egyptian Trade Union Federation (ETUF) is a trade union based in Cairo, Egypt. History and profile The ETUF was founded in 1957 as a state-controlled union. Until 2011 all unions other than the ETUF were banned. During the Egyptian Revolut ...

. In 2007, he led major strikes and sit-ins outside the Ministry of Manpower - the institution he would lead six years later. He was active in supporting the January 25th revolution. For several years he was a member of the outlawed

Nasserist Nasserism ( ) is an Arab nationalist and Arab socialist political ideology based on the thinking of Gamal Abdel Nasser, one of the two principal leaders of the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, and Egypt's second President. Spanning the domestic a ...

Dignity Party. He represented the party as an MP after being elected in 2011, having run as a member of the FJP-affiliated

Democratic Alliance for Egypt Democratic Alliance for Egypt, or Democratic Alliance, was a coalition of political parties in Egypt, formed in the wake of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution. The largest party in the group was the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party. Af ...

Post-January 25

He gained notoriety for helping to establish the

Real Estate Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...

Tax Authority Independent General Union in 2009 - the country’s first independent

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

. The move was aggressively rejected by the state-tied

Egyptian Federation of Independent Trade Unions (EFITU)

While a senior leader of the EFITU, the CTUWS decided to withdraw from the union. By October 2011 the CTUWS and 148 other unions established the EDLC. In the 2014, the EDLC and EFITU are estimated to represent nearly two million Egyptian workers.

Minister of Manpower

Abu-Eita was originally appointed Minister of Manpower during the 2012 Morsi Cabinet. His appointment was aggressively rejected by the ETUF, viewing him as animus towards the group. Upon being nominated to the ministry, he announced that his primary objective as minister would be promoting the long-sought minimum wage law. The law would raise public sector salaries from a minimum of £E700 to £E1,200 per month. Only month after being appointed Minister, security forces crushed a strike at the Suez Steel Company. Abu Eita reportedly did not comment on the issue. Members of the EFITU executive committee would later complain about Abu Eita's committing the union to abandoning "the strike weapon" at times, without consultation. In this way, he was seen as instrumentalizing the independent union rather than representing its interests.

Political views

Responding to reports that he advocated the teaching of

capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for Profit (economics), profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, pric ...

, Abu-Eita said "I am a

and I do not support capitalism." Abu-Eita was co-founder of the Nasserist Dignity Party.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abu Eita, Kamal 1953 births Living people Immigration ministers of Egypt Egyptian trade unionists