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A Pan-Hellenic strike to grip the country on the 11th of May

18 April 2011 / 20:04:28  GRReporter
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The trade unions of the employees in the public and private sectors in Greece announced a Pan-Hellenic 24-hour strike for the 11th of May. The decision on the conduct was adopted at a meeting of the executive committee of the General Confederation of Greek Workers.

According to the President of the Confederation Yiannis Panagopoulos, the strike will take place in response to the problems faced by the unemployed, the workers and the pensioners in Greece. "According to the national plan for the economy, they have to pay the bill again, and not those who can afford it. This can not continue any longer."

The President of the Confederation of Greek Workers said that it is not possible to talk about fiscal consolidation without holding any discussion about the transformation of the Greek economy and the foreign debt into sustainable and manageable. He declared himself completely against the privatisation by saying that "no national wealth, networks, infrastructure and especially social goods such as water and energy are to be sold in a night, without any response." The trade unions disagree with the cancellation of the collective agreements, defined as "shield of the workers against the arbitrary acts of employers."

The criticism by the President of the Union of Industrialists Dimitris Daskalopoulos concerning the delays in the implementation of reforms and the utilisaion of state property caused strong reaction from trade unionists.

Typical was the comment of the general secretary of the Confederation of Workers Nikolaos Kioutsoukis that "the government with its proposals excites the appetite of those who have been plundering the national wealth all these years."

According to the trade unionists, the "policy of the Memorandum and the government, the accounts of which don’t book up" should meet with resistance. "They call on the unemployed, the working people and the pensioners who are the system’s permanent beasts of the burden to pay another 76 billion euros by 2015. We say enough, this can not last any longer," said the general secretary.

The executive committee of the Confederation announced a strike on the 1st of May too, because as the chairman Yiannis Panagopoulos said "there are people who are obliged to work that day and it is important to know that their strike actions are supported by the decision of the trade unions."

The representative of trade unions of communists PAME stated that its members will also participate in the strike.

Tags: SocietyStrikeTrade unionsPublic sectorPrivate sectorReformsMemorandumEconomic policy
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