2024-04-30 19:05:24
So on Holy Wednesday, May 1st, public and private sector unions will be on their feet, with rallies and marches planned in all major cities as well as in Ioannina, with the slogan of course “it’s not a holiday, it’s a strike” .
The Labor Center, the Prefectural Department of ADEDY, as well as the primary public and private sector unions, will gather at 10.30 in the morning, at the junction of Averof and Yosef Eligia streets, in order to follow a march in the center of the city.
The messages of Labor Day, 138 years after the workers’ uprising in Chicago, but also of the struggles that followed for the establishment of the eight-hour day, collective labor agreements and labor rights, are still relevant, as emphasized by the president of N.T. of ADEDY Christos Grivas, in an interview with the representatives of the secondary and primary education teachers’ associations Christos Kalambokis and Costas Parganas and the member of the Board of Directors. of EKI Alexandros Balakera.
Mr. Grivas emphasized that what the labor movement has achieved with sacrifices over the years, has entered the “target” of the government, which with anti-labor bills abolished the 8-hour day, collective agreements, as well as the right to strike, privatized the supplementary insurance and EFKA and drastically reduced spending on health and education.
“Thus, it dissolves the three pillars of the welfare state: Health, Education, Social Security. The large strike mobilization on February 28 sent the message to the government that the workers of the country are fighting to demand real increases in their wages and not mock increases, like those given for 2024. The workers’ mobilizations will continue on May Day and with the 24-hour strike on May 21,” he noted.
The demands of the workers include 10% wage increases, reinstatement of gifts to the public sector, abolition of the 2% unemployment levy, unfreezing of the 2016–17 wage scale, tax-free at €12,000, increase and extension of the dangerous and unhealthy allowance of work, recruitment of permanent staff to cover the thousands of organizational vacancies, support of the NHS with generous funding and repeal of the Hatzidakis Law.
In particular, the requests of the educational community were mentioned by Mr. Kalambokas and Parganas, noting the “attack” received by the sector from the Ministry of Education, which has repeatedly appealed in order to declare teachers’ strikes illegal and abusive. At the same time, they emphasized the absence of dialogue on the part of the Ministry, at a time when the upgrading of the public school is required.
“The games will continue and get stronger”
Call to the May Day strike, which “signals the struggle of the workers, against their capitalist exploiters, to claim better working and living conditions but also to pave the way for the abolition of the exploitation of man by man, for the overthrow of capitalist brutality “, addresses the Labor Center of Ioannina,
“For the working class around the world, May Day is a beacon of unreconciled class struggle. The ND government’s attempt to abolish the May Day strike, based on a SYRIZA law, and to turn it into a festive holiday, will not pass. Our struggles will continue and grow stronger,” the administration says.
The competitive framework of EKI includes the demand for better working and living conditions, Collective Labor Agreements with increases in wages and expansion of rights, the immediate abolition of anti-work days, 7 hours – 5 days – 35 hours, immediate measures against punctuality, measures for the health and safety of workers at work and disengagement from imperialist designs and war conflicts, while expressing solidarity with the people of Palestine.
A call from the New Left
The New Left of Ioannina is also calling for the strike gathering at the Labor Center of Ioannina, joining its voice with the labor forces and unions, and claiming the defense of labor rights.
“We vigorously oppose class government policies of exploitation and deregulation, job insecurity and unemployment, all forms of low-paid, insecure and flexible work that degrade our lives. We ask for democracy and strict control mechanisms in the workplace, protection of vulnerable workers, immigrants, young people, women. We want workers to be at the forefront of the fight for a socially just development. We are defending society from the onslaught of exactitude and profiteering that is deforesting people’s incomes,” he says in a statement, which concludes: “Labor Day is not a holiday, much less a repurposed holiday, it is a major labor strike.”
In two days, the strike is “shared” in the media
With demands for Collective Bargaining Agreements, labor rights and non-binding information, the Federations of the media sector announced their participation in the strike mobilizations due to Labor Day.
By joint decisions of POESY, POSPERT, POEPTYM and ETPTA, a strike is announced for all journalists, technicians, administrators and photojournalists in all Mass Media (print, radio and television, online) in the public and private sector, ERT, GGE, APE- MEP, OTA, Press Offices and website, as follows:
– From 5 a.m. Tuesday to 5 a.m. Wednesday of all journalists, technicians, administrators, photojournalists working in newspapers and magazines.
– From 5 a.m. on Wednesday to 5 a.m. on Thursday of all journalists, technicians, administrators working in all radio and television and online Mass Media, in the public and private sector, at ERT, at ΣΒΕΕ, in Municipal Radios and Press Offices, of all journalists in the country.