In his first televised address as prime minister on March 2, 2014, Ibrahim Mehleb reiterated what has become a familiar term of state rhetoric used to contain labor unrest, widely referred to as “the wheel of production” (‘agalat el-intag) discourse. The true meaning of the “wheel of production” iteration was expressed in Mehleb's call on “Egyptians to help rebuild the nation and halt strikes and protests.” When representatives of the state—or state-allied political actors, including some labor unions—proclaim that the “wheel of production must turn” in response to strikes and other labor demonstrations, they are suggesting that the protesters are behaving selfishly, in their own economic interests. For laborers to make demands for better wages and working conditions during a time of national crisis is presented to the public as a threat to economic stability and national security that is harmful to all Egyptians. Ironically, though not unexpectedly, in the same address Mehleb pledged to address many of the basic demands raised by protesting workers: a decent standard of living, the even distribution of resources, the rooting out of corruption, and institutional reform of the public sector—all while maintaining workers’ rights. Although state agents' rhetorical commitment to decent standards of living and social and economic rights is not novel, the simultaneous conjuring of the “wheel of production” to halt protests has a more recent history occasioned by the last three years of revolutionary transformations.