THE Greek Interior Minister, Christos Kastanidis, has issued a press release/edict stating that the wages of all local government workers would be withheld unless the occupations and strikes end.
This was in response to the refusal of the local government workers’ union POE-OTA to call off the occupation of municipal depots and refuse dumps.
At the same time, Finance Minister Evagelos Venizelos has arrogantly responded to critics of his wage-cutting policies by taunting them ‘well then, overthrow the government if you will.’
Kastanidis asked local councils to break the strike by hiring private contractors and threatened the employment of the riot police against workers who are mass picketing refuse dumps.
The POE-OTA instructed its members to stage occupations of all town halls, depots and municipal buildings throughout Greece. By Friday morning, POE-OTA stated that the vast majority of town halls and depots were under occupation and their number is growing as workers vote massively for action.
In the Aghios Demetrios district of Athens, workers staged occupations of the town hall and other buildings early on Friday morning. The President of the Aghios Demetrios Council Workers’ Union, Yiorghos Maglis, told the News Line that all town councils in the south-west of Athens are under occupation.
Athens public transport workers struck for a second consecutive day on Friday, along with taxi drivers, and have decided to join, from Tuesday, next week’s avalanche of national strikes which includes a 48-hour strike for next Wednesday and Thursday called by the GSEE (Greek TUC) and ADEDY (public sector unions federation).
Last Thursday, over 3,000 public transport workers marched through Athens to the PASOK HQ, the social-democratic government party, demanding the overthrow of the government. At the same time, health workers on strike marched to the Vouli (Greek parliament) against the wage cuts and mass sackings government Bill.
But the Finance Minister Venizelos introduced new harsher amendments to the Bill as demanded by the IMF and the European Commission.
National wage agreements are to be wiped out and all workers will have deducted from their monthly wages the new taxes imposed by the government.
To the meek protests of PASOK parliamentary deputies, the Finance Minister Venizelos arrogantly and cynically responded by saying ‘well then, overthrow the government if you will.’
