ATHENS, Greece--In the largest labor mobilizations in two decades, 100,000 workers, students, and members of professional organizations rallied here April 26 as part of a nationwide general strike. Tens of thousands of working people also participated in other cities and towns throughout the country. The actions demanded the government retract its plans to slash pension benefits for workers who retire after the year 2007.
The strike was called by the General Confederation of Greek Workers (GSEE) and the Confederation of Public Servants (ADEDY). After the massive rally in central Athens in front of the GSEE headquarters, workers marched to parliament. The turnout was organized on five days' notice.
As the preparations for the protests gathered steam, the social democratic Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) government declared it would suspend its attack on pension benefits. Following the strike it called for unconditional negotiations with the unions.
Citing what it characterizes as the "insolvency" of the social security funds, the government proposes to raise the age at which people are to receive retirement benefits, among other measures. Currently workers become eligible for retirement after 35 years of service or upon reaching the ages of 65 and 60 for men and women respectively. Under the current system the average retirement age is 58.
The new proposals would make retirement applicable at age 65 or after 40 years of service for both men and women. If a worker reaches age 65 and has put in less service, he or she will not be entitled to the full benefits.
The new proposals would slash monthly benefit payments by an estimated 29 percent, by calculating payments on the last 15 years on the job, rather than the last five years, which tend to be the highest in wages. Benefits received would also be excluded from the calculation.
The proposals also attack gains made by miners, construction workers, chemical workers, and others laboring under particularly hazardous conditions. Under the current system these workers are entitled to full early retirement. While the new proposals would not do away with these categories, the government has raised the right to review and "consolidate" them.
'an unacceptable outrage'
"This is an unacceptable outrage! They will have us work until we are 68 or 69 before we can retire in order to get a full pension. We should work at getting maximum participation at the general strike and demonstration," said a young electrician to this reporter on his work site prior to the strike. The worker wished not to be identified.
These proposals follow 15 years of austerity and gradual erosion of wages for workers here, with unemployment holding at 11 percent. They come less than a year after the passage of "labor flexibility" legislation that--in the name of increasing labor productivity and competitiveness--attacks the eight-hour day, among other conquests.
Working people celebrated the strike as a major success. Unions organizing telephone, power plant, rail, air transport, transit, metal, shipyard, and construction workers, sailors, stevedores, municipal workers, teachers, bank workers, and many others struck. Many shops closed. A number of professional organizations joined the protest, such as those representing lawyers and journalists. Demonstrations were organized in Thessaloniki, Patra, Pireas, in Crete, and other places.
As all public transport came to a halt, the GSEE organized coaches from each neighborhood to the march location. Unions arranged for buses to carry local contingents.
In discussions at the city's airport, the focus of many union members shifted from how to cope with the effects of the proposed changes in retirement laws to how to get to the rally once the strike call was issued. In work sites where there are no unions organized, workers talked out how to stop work. As a result, many thousands of unorganized workers participated.
In the city of Lavrion, for example, the Labor Center informed janitors and other unorganized workers that it would protect them should they strike. These workers had approached the trade union body for advice. "We just decided that we would close the office and come to the demonstration," said Maria, a teacher at an unorganized computer school, who was part of a contingent of young women.
Morale was extremely high as workers sensed what they had accomplished with the mobilization. Contingents chanted, "Sold out social security! Sold out all the people!" and "It will not pass!"
Many union banners called for "Full, compulsory, social security!" Up to a million immigrant workers as well as Greek-born workers have been forced by the bosses to work without any social security or health insurance, a phenomenon known here as "black labor."
The huge turnout was unaffected by the 11th-hour proclamation by the minister of labor that the government would put a "freeze" on its social security proposals and engage the union federations in "social dialogue." The night before the strike 21 PASOK members of parliament and 42 members of the party Central Committee signed a letter calling for an emergency Central Committee meeting. They complained of the "void between PASOK and its social base."
"The government has not simply been defeated," over social security reform, stated an April 28-29 editorial of Kathimerini, the main big-business daily, "but also on the broader political level. [Prime Minister Kostantinos] Simitis' prestige has been irreparably tarnished.... From now on he will find it increasingly hard to rule effectively."
The presidents of GSEE and ADEDY characterize the government withdrawal of its proposals a "maneuver" and assert that the unions will continue the fight to guarantee public, compulsory social security for all. The two federations have called for another general strike May 17, as well as for mass participation in the May 1 rally to continue the protests.
Natasha Terlexis is a member of the Federation of Air Transport Employees. Georges Mehrabian is a chemical worker.