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From today Pieria port employees resume their 48 hour strike. Except for the port employees, also mad are the stage program workers, who until now were working without health and retirement insurances. Now they want their employers to offer them permanent contracts.

New development in the Chinese company and Pieria port case is that the government appointed Mr. Georgios Anomeritis for chairman and chief counselor of the Port Workers Organization, who will take over the negotiations with Cosco.

The priorities of the Greek government in the negotiations with Cosco are reviewing all labor contracts and work conditions, tax regulations in the contract with the Chinese company and the normative framework for proper functioning of the port.

Meanwhile the port employees announced a 48 hour strike and that they will not go to work on Saturday and Sunday. On Monday they will discuss whether to continue their strike. The government insists the port to continue operating normally and through discussions and legal procedures to insure better work conditions and insurances for the port employees.

On the other hand port traders are afraid that the “black days” from 2008 will come back. Back then the port employees were on strike for 14 months. As a result many stores closed, foreign markets were lost and the sea trade was brought to zero.

The employees of program Stage started their 24 hour strike today, because they want those programs to be shut down. At 11:00AM this morning they gathered at a protest rally on Omonia Square and after that they went towards the parliament. Last week minister of labor Andreas Loverdos stressed that he will go ahead and apply a governmental decision to cancel the Stage programs in the public sector and will make sure contracts can be renewed.

The employees want to be offered permanent contracts, because otherwise they will continue their strike. Over 30 000 people throughout Greece have been working under such conditions up to now and the most common victims are women and the younger generation. Those people are deprived of simple labor rights but the most affected are women because no maternity leafs are given.