Egyptian tour guides union announced a three days strike on 15, 16 and 17 November, demanding better work conditions and employment opportunities.
Tour guides in Egypt, that are facing high unemployement since last year, are demanding the cancellation of mandatory training they must pay for in order to renew their license.
“We aren’t against the idea of the training” the Secretary General of the Union said, “but we refuse to pay so much money for an obligatory and illegal training when we’ve been suffering from unemployment following the January 2011 revolution.”
Among the demands of the tour guides are:
- Health insurance in case of an accident as they claim that when a bus accident occurs, the tourists, the driver and the bus driver are insured except the tour guide.
- Hiring only Egyptians as foreign language-speaking tourist guides
- Representation in international conferences
The tourist guides have been on several protests before, especially after tourism declined following the January 2011 revolution.
