Workers in rail, shipping, public transportation and construction, at hospitals, schools and elsewhere, joined a general strike across Greece Nov. 20 to protest soaring prices, unaffordable rents and low wages. The one-day action was called by a number of unions.
Public-sector unions are demanding a 10% wage raise and a return of bonuses cut in previous years. Rallies of 15,000 strikers were held in Athens, above, and 4,000 in Thessaloniki, the country’s second-largest city.
Following the 2008 financial crisis, the rulers in Germany and France used their dominant position in the European Union to press successive Greek governments to slash social services, wages and pensions in return for a so-called bailout. Unemployment jumped and real wages fell by 8.3%, the steepest plunge for working people anywhere in the EU.
Today the Greek capitalist rulers’ economy is growing at a faster rate than most of their rivals in Europe. Unemployment is the lowest in 20 years. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has raised the minimum wage four times since 2019.
But this has failed to offset the escalating costs of energy, food and housing that workers confront, the unions calling the protest said.