Cairo baggage handlers strike over workplace death
Twenty flights take off without bags after workers protest work accident and slow response of emergency services
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleCAIRO (AP) — Egyptian officials say baggage handlers in Cairo’s airport have gone on strike to protest a colleague’s death, leaving passengers on 20 international flights from Europe and Arab countries waiting several hours for luggage.
Airport officials say senior officials from the country’s national carrier are meeting the baggage handlers to hear their demands, which include guarantees of safer working conditions.
The strike started Saturday after a baggage handler who works for EgyptAir died when a conveyer belt used to unload luggage fell on his head. Airport officials say it took more than an hour for the ambulance to arrive at the scene from the airport’s onsite hospital.
Officials spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to brief the media.
The strike by around 60 baggage handlers did not disrupt flights.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.
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