Greece: thousands say no to antilabor bill
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BY GEORGES MEHRABIAN
ATHENS, Greece--Ten thousand workers marched through the center of this capital city October 10 protesting against a "labor flexibility" bill. Unions of construction, metal, bank, airline, rail, telephone, television, and food industry workers were among those that took part in a 24-hour strike that day called by the General Confederation of Greek Workers (GSEE) and the civil employees federation, and supported by unions affiliated to the All Workers Front (PAME).
The bill, promoted by the social democratic PASOK government, would allow bosses to extend the workday to 10 hours and the workweek to 50 hours--with no overtime pay--during so-called peak seasons. Workers would supposedly be entitled to an equivalent amount of time off during "low seasons."
The bill would also allow bosses to fire workers more freely and cut employer contributions to the social security fund.
The strike and accompanying demonstrations took place throughout the country. One of the largest strike actions was in the northern industrial city of Thessaloniki. According to the Association of Industries of Northern Greece, 40 percent of workers at privately owned companies and 60 percent of public employees joined the strike, making this one of the largest job actions in 10 years.
"For years now, with joining the European Monetary Union as a pretext, they [the employers and the government] have asked us to agree to austerity. Today, again with maintaining the country in the EMU as a pretext, they ask us to make new sacrifices," said Y. Vretahos, speaking on behalf of the public workers at the Athens rally.
"This strike is not just for public workers--this strike is about defending everyone," stated one Olympic Airline worker who asked not to be identified. Olympic is the state-owned airline company.
Airline workers held their own rally in the departures terminal of the Athens airport. Many airlines scheduled their flights to coincide with the end of the strike. The rally prevented check-ins for Lufthansa flights for a few hours. Lufthansa is serviced by a nonunion handling company and had flights scheduled during the strike.
"There were 500 unionists who rallied here," reported Kahtan Ibrahim, a member of the Construction Workers Union in Hania, on the island of Crete. "It was good to see that the GSEE and PAME rallied together." The GSEE is led by PASOK members while PAME is led by supporters of the Communist Party. The actions in Athens and elsewhere were also marked by joint actions.
The October 10 work stoppage follows strikes by telephone workers, sailors, and bank workers in the past month. There have also been blockades of ports by fishermen and strike protests by truckers demanding lower fuel taxes.
The trade union bodies have called for a national demonstration to be held in Athens on October 21.
Georges Mehrabian is a chemical worker in Athens, Greece.
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