CAIRO — In what many critics see as an effort to eliminate union organization in Egypt and undermine all constitutional articles guaranteeing the right to establish trade unions, the state on March 1 declared that the stamps of independent trade unions will no longer be valid on official documents. The decision prohibits dealing with independent trade unions and considers them illegitimate entities.

The decision came following a more than five-year struggle between independent trade unions and the state, represented by the Ministry of Manpower, which is in charge of following up on the establishment and activity of trade unions. After the January 25 Revolution, dozens of independent trade unions started forming to express workers' demands.

With time, the independent trade unions’ influence increased, as members elected their leaders and saw them as rights advocates. Workers abandoned the pro-government Egyptian Trade Union Federation (ETUF), which failed to unite them under its umbrella.

The Interior Ministry said the Ministry of Manpower had asked for the unions to be invalidated because they are not subject to the provisions of Law No. 35 of 1976 on trade unions, which prohibits union pluralism.