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Anastasia Balezdrova

The protests against the reforms in the public sector began with the advent of September but without bringing a large number of disgruntled employees out in the street. Municipal police officers, municipal employees, school guards, nursing staff and doctors from public hospitals protested in Athens today.

Early in the morning about 100 school guards rushed into the building of the Ministry of the Interior, symbolically "conquering" it for several hours. On 23 September, they and another 2,150 of their colleagues from all over Greece will be included in the mobility programme, i.e. they will be moved to other government departments where there is a shortage of staff. According to their trade union representatives, however, this means dismissal in practice since their jobs were eliminated in July and the 8-month term for moving them to other jobs has already started.

The protesters demanded a meeting with Minister of Interior Yiannis Mihelakis which took place a little later. He tried to convince the representatives of the protesters during the discussion that the mobility programme does not mean redundancies and added that it depends on how fast the municipalities will complete the restructuring.

At the same time, another 50 school guards protested outside the Ministry of Administrative Reform. Another 100 municipal police officers who arrived on foot and by motorcycle had joined them and then subsequently the trade unionists met with representatives of the Ministry. An hour later they said they had been assured that they would not be dismissed.

"Nevertheless, we should not rely on these words because, as we have seen in the case of the arms companies, the Troika is able to request the dismissal of everyone. Therefore, we need to mobilize ourselves, be out in the street every day and fight for our right to work," said a union representative over the loudspeaker.

It is worth noting that the groups of protesters were not allowed to block the street traffic in the centre of Athens. The police forces were watching whether the protests were taking place in only one of the lanes.

Today's events were a small prelude to the big protest procession which the major unions and opposition parties are going to organize in Thessaloniki during the opening of the International Trade Fair by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras this Saturday.

Union representatives are holding meetings in various regions across the country in order to gather as many participants as possible. "There should be participants but I cannot get involved with forecasts regarding their number. As you can see, despite the government measures which will leave thousands of people without jobs, the participation in the recent protests has been low," a union leader told GRReporter.

The main opposition party SYRIZA will actively participate in the protests. The Greek editions are critically commenting on the fact that Alexis Tsipras will take part in the protest during the opening of Thessaloniki Fair and that, a week later, he will be there again to give a press conference. The motto on the posters of SYRIZA, "Either them or us", which can be seen across the city shows the importance that the party is attaching to the protest.

After Thessaloniki the protests will continue in Athens where they will intensify. The trade unions of the public and private sector employees ADEDI and GSEE have announced a 48-hour strike against the cuts of public workers on 17 and 18 September.