AN Athens court has declared ‘illegal’ the 48-hour national strike of the Wind telecom company workers but the strike went ahead on Wednesday and Thursday with pickets at the company’s HQs where most of the 1,100-strong workforce is employed.
Bosses are using austerity accords legislation to ask courts to declare strikes illegal. The Wind workers got legal cover through the Athens Trades Council and the National Union of Shopworkers.
Strikers are demanding the abolition of flexible working conditions, no sackings and the signing of a collective national agreement.
Last Tuesday’s strike at another telecom company Vodafone had an over 80 per cent participation and has forced the management to talks.
The Greek coalition government of SYRIZA (Coalition of the Radical Left) and ANEL (Independent Greeks party) have promised that the austerity labour legislation would be abolished.
The major Greek telecom company OTE has had 2,500 applications for just 10 trainee jobs. Youth unemployment in Greece is officially 55 per cent.
A delegation of the 595 sacked Finance Ministry women cleaners met briefly with the Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis who, once again, promised that they will get their jobs back through legislation prepared by the Greek government.
One of the sacked women cleaners, Despina Kostopoulou, said after the meeting that, ‘Our reinstatement is on the way, but we won’t leave our tents at our Camp of Struggle until we are back at work.’
