Galery

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At 06:00 pm today syndicates are organizing a big protest in support of the Bulgarian Konstantina Kouneva, who was splashed with acid on December 23^rd and since then she has been in intensive care in the Athenian “Evangelismos” hospital. The woman is a secretary of the cleaners and house maids syndicate and the attack against her is connected to her active syndicate work. Today’s protests will start from the central building of the Athens University and will finish in front of the Labor Ministry.

The Greek syndicates spread around an enactment yesterday, with which they are denouncing the attack against Konstantina Kouneva and are calling upon the government to put a stop to the ancient conditions under which the cleaning employees are working. The unions want the government to change the law from 2001, which gives the right to public organizations to hire cleaning staff without paying directly to them but to their employers. The enactment talks about a political protection of suspicious work relationships, which are more characteristic of the peonage and not of a modern European country in the 21^st century.

The syndicates are insisting that the government should pay all medical expenses for Konstantina Kouneva and should provide a good pension. They are also urging the syndicate members to continue protecting their own rights, so they can show that such murder attempts because of the union’s activity not only will not give them up but will inspire them.

Konstantina Kouneva has severe burns all over her face and throat. Because of this she has lost one of her eyes and the doctors are still fighting to save the other one. The woman has severe injuries on her voice cords and gullet.