As I have said several times, the Egyptian working class is a critical factor in the current events. Historian Joel Beinin at Stanford is an expert on the labor movement in Egypt and was interviewed recently about the current situation.

Historian Joel Beinin on the Egyptian Labor Crisis.

You can learn more by reading this report authored by Joel for the AFL-CIO. Joel also has a very useful chapter in this edited collection on the authoritarian character of neo-liberal reforms in Egypt.