Protests in Egypt escalated this week when thousands of emboldened workers across the country walked off or sat down on the job [5]. More than 20,000 workers across Egypt stayed home Wednesday, demanding mostly economic rather than political concessions.

Some, however, are calling for the authoritarian government’s officials to leave power. Striking electrical workers in Cairo called on the director of the state-owned South Cairo Electrical Company to resign and public transit workers locked buses in garages Thursday [6], threatening to shut down the city’s bus service if Mubarak remains in office. A full-scale transit strike could provoke major problems for the government in a society where most don't have cars. Postal, petroleum, and rail workers also lent their clout to the movement this week.

Workers in the critical Suez Canal Authority have taken perhaps the most important action of all, launching a 6,000-strong sitdown strike that began Tuesday evening. While their demands center on pay and working conditions, the sheer force of their leverage has implications for the entire Egyptian uprising. The action appears to be a wildcat strike.

The Suez Canal enables ships to travel from Asia to Europe by way of the Red and Mediterranean Seas, bypassing a journey [7] around the Cape of Good Hope at the tip of Africa that would take more than a week.

The canal handled 559 million tons of cargo in 2009, nearly three times the tonnage [8] handled by the Port of Los Angeles, the busiest port in the U.S. The canal handles cargo amounting to about 8 percent of global maritime trade [7].

It also transits up to 2.5 million barrels of crude oil each day, with oil-exporting countries using the canal to move their crude to market and to import refined petroleum products. The canal is of further importance for U.S. military interests; the U.S. navy counts on it [9] for rapid deployment of vessels from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf.

So far, most industry analysts insist that canal traffic is either minimally affected or unaffected by the strike actions and will remain so. Many, such as the Journal of Commerce and Logistics Week, quote Egyptian government officials who have an interest in keeping a lid on the effectiveness of any protest. If canal workers affect traffic, or if the strikes spread, enormous international pressure would come down on the Mubarak regime to get the cargo flowing again.

Reports contradicting the official line are starting to appear. Egypt’s state-controlled newspaper Ahram Online reported [10] on Tuesday that “disruptions to shipping movements, as well as disastrous economic losses, are expected if the strike continues.” By Wednesday, the article had been changed [11] to state that no delays are expected.

Regardless, the waterway’s strategic and economic significance amounts to a massive bargaining chip for the pro-democracy protesters if leveraged correctly, and its importance won’t end with the uprising. If democracy prevails and the people of Egypt take power, the new regime could use the canal for any number of political and economic purposes.

Egyptian authorities are beefing up security around the canal, claiming that Hamas and Hezbollah plan to dispatch saboteurs to aid the rebellion. Maybe they're acting on real intelligence, or maybe they're afraid of what the workers could do for themselves and for their revolution.

Evan Rohar is a former dockworker.