CAIRO: Egypt's new military rulers urged workers to return to their jobs Monday and help restart an economy damaged by an uprising which ended the 30-year rule of Hosni Mubarak but also sparked a growing wave of strikes. In a televised address three days after Mubarak was forced to step down as president and hand power to the armed forces, the Higher Military Council appealed for national unity. In “Communique No. 5” read out on state television, an army spokesman said: “Noble Egyptians see that these strikes, at this delicate time, lead to negative results.” It added that work stoppages were harming security and economic production. The military council now governing the Arab world's most populous nation said it “calls on citizens and professional unions and the labor unions to play their role fully”. Egypt's generals, who played an important role in the anti-Mubarak revolt by making no effort to crush it, are asserting their control and trying to return life to normal. Workers cite a series of grievances. What unites them is a new sense of being able to speak out in the post-Mubarak era. Pro-democracy leaders say Egyptians will demonstrate again if their demands for radical change are not met. They plan a big “Victory March” on Friday to celebrate the revolution — and perhaps to remind the military of the power of the street. Using their new-found freedom of expression and protest, angry employees on Monday rallied in Cairo and other cities to complain about low pay and poor working conditions. Protests, sit-ins and strikes have occurred at state-owned institutions across Egypt, including the stock exchange, textile and steel firms, media organizations, the postal service, railways, the Culture Ministry and the Health Ministry. Hundreds of employees demonstrated outside a branch of the Bank of Alexandria in central Cairo on Monday, urging their bosses to “leave, leave!” in an echo of an anti-Mubarak slogan. At least 500 people staged a wage protest outside the state television building. “If they distributed all the billions of dollars that Mubarak stole and distributed it to the 80 million Egyptians, it would be enough,” said one of the protesters, Safat Mohamed Guda, 52, a widow with five children. The military cleared the last few dozen protesters from Cairo's Tahrir Square, nerve-center of anti-Mubarak protests. But shortly after that, hundreds of police officers marched through to demonstrate solidarity with pro-democracy activists and again stopped traffic flowing through the city center. In a sign of nervousness, Egypt's stock exchange, closed since Jan. 27 because of the turmoil, said it would remain shut until stability returned to the economy, an official said. The military rulers called a bank holiday on Monday after disruption in the banking sector. In a communique on Sunday, the military suspended the constitution and dissolved parliament. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Monday that Egypt's military has so far taken “reassuring” steps towards democratic reforms but warned much work remains and offered US help. “This is a very challenging moment for the Egyptian military,” Clinton told reporters during a visit to the US Congress. “The steps they've taken so far are reassuring, but there's a long way to go, and the United States has made it clear that we stand ready to assist in any way appropriate,” she said. Meanwhile, the Egyptian Museum announced that it had recovered two of several priceless artefacts that had been looted during the initial unrest sparked by the revolt.
