Brussels, 25/09/2012 (Agence Europe) - After massive marches in Portugal and Spain, it is Greece's turn to steel itself for a wave of protests in the streets of Athens on Wednesday 26 September. The main trade unions, both private and public, have announced that a 24-hour general strike is to be held in protest against the austerity plans and labour market and social security reforms. For some ten days already, many sector-specific strikes (police officials, judges) have been organised.
The two main Greek trade unions, ADEDY (the confederation of civil servants' trade unions) and GSEE (the general confederation of Greek workers) have called for a nation-wide strike, but the heads of the troika (European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund) will not be there to see the Greek protest march having left Athens at the weekend. Although the Commission sees this as no more than a short pause, with their return being at the end of the week, most commentators believe it is a sign of disavowal of the slowness with which the government under Prime Minister Antonis Samaras is developing the last points of a new austerity package and reform of the pension system.
Reasons given by the trade unions to justify the movement are linked to the new demands made by the troika to bring in additional measures aimed at improving the finances of the Greek State. Some of those demands are part of the public debate, especially the plan to increase the legal retirement age from 65 to 67, while others are based on the fear of later measures still unconfirmed. In a joint statement, the two trade unions base their arguments on a leaked confidential letter attributed to the troika, which is said to have asked the Greek authorities to prepare a further cut in the minimum wage, as well as to increase the working week to six days.
Furthermore, trade unions denounce the fact that “the country's entire labour legislation is destroyed, hard won labour rights smashed and the labour market derailed to appease the neo-liberal 'competitiveness' fixation”. In their view, none of the solutions put forward so far have managed to achieve the slightest objective fixed to make the Greek sovereign debt manageable. Those solutions are simply “propelling the country at an exponential rate towards economic and social collapse and political instability against a looming humanitarian crisis”. (JK/transl.jl)