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Greece protests at further austerity

Issue date
Solidarity with Greek workers

ETUC Day of Action

14 November 2012

As their contribution to the ETUC Day of Action against austerity and for jobs and growth, the Greek trade union confederations ADEDY and GSEE held a two day general strike on 6 and 7 November, to coincide with the Parliamentary debate on the latest austerity package. At their request, the TUC sent a letter of protest to the Greek Prime Minister.

Here is what they were protesting about.

GSEE called a nationwide 48-hour strike on 6 and 7 November 2012 and a mass rally to protest the new brutal anti-labour and anti-social austerity and deregulation measures to be voted in Parliament.

The new colossal austerity package once again squarely targets workers, pensioners and the poor.

It includes €18,9 bn in pension/wage cuts, and taxes frontloading €11 bn. for 2013, €14,3 bn. up by the end of 2014 and other €4,6 bn. for 2015-2016.

Coming on top of €28 bn. of austerity in 2011 the new package will:

  • Deal the final blow to the country and the economy that remains swamped in a six year recession of 20%.
  • Push the ongoing impoverishment and social dislocation of Greeks to unprecedented levels.
  • Propel society to an abyss while elites and tax evaders escape hardship.
  • Expropriate the remaining public assets by massive privatisations.
  • Wipe out collective bargaining rights and trade unions leading to mass lay-offs: the minimum wage will be set by government legislation below subsistence levels removing all allowances and the only remaining benefit, the 10% family allowance. The new law forbids the extension of the protective framework of collective agreements to all workers.
  • Amplify unemployment, now at 25%, where 1,000 people lose their job each day and thousands haven't seen a paycheck in months.

We demand the rejection of the unacceptable austerity bill and the destructive coercive measures dictated by the Troika to the Government.

We oppose the neoliberal dogma that devastates our country and aims to transform the South of Europe into a zone of extreme exploitation and no rights.

We remain committed to the coordinated struggle of the European trade union movement. Our strike upholds the strong message of unity and resistance of the European Action Day on 14 November.

There are culprits - There are solutions

Together we can stop these savage policies that devastate economy and society.

At a time when €13bn of fresh cuts in wages and pensions as well as new tax hikes for 2013 are frontloaded and imposed on impoverished Greek workers and their families, new 'structural' measures will deprive workers of their most fundamental rights.

The troika is exerting pressure for the government to determine the minimum wage through legislation. This means the irreversible formal end of free collective bargaining, abolishing the National General Collective Agreement that hitherto set minima for wages, benefits and working conditions following negotiations by the social partners.

The new system precludes the extension of the protective framework of collective agreements to all workers.

It would set and freeze the statutory minimum wage and long-service 'maturity' allowances at the below-subsistence levels set in February 2012, and forbid any other allowance.

The effective elimination of maturity allowances means that all workers will be a priori treated as new entrants to the labour market with no accrued rights whatsoever, and the planned elimination of the sole remaining benefit, the family allowance, will by stealth inflict a further 10% cut on top of the other cuts in the austerity package.

Among other measures, the troika is also trying to consolidate a complete overhaul of working time arrangements.

The actions of the troika pose a threat to basic democratic rights not only in Greece, but to people everywhere.

We unequivocally condemn this latest attempt by the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund, acting as the Troika, to deprive the people of Greece of fundamental rights, enshrined in ILO Conventions and other UN instruments. We demand that the Troika members cease their attempts to impose dictatorial measures on the people of Greece, and call upon them to support measures which will restore economic growth, democratic rights and dignity.

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