GREECE: Municipal workers, including garbage collectors, strike over fears of job losses and wage cuts

Record ID: 340482

  • Title: GREECE: Municipal workers, including garbage collectors, strike over fears of job losses and wage cuts
  • Date: 20th November 2010
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF THE HUNDREDS OF PROTESTERS BLOCKING THE STREET AS PART OF THEIR MARCH VARIOUS OF WORKERS MARCHING ALONG ATHENS STREET WITH BANNER IN FRONT READING: "No more burdens on workers, hands off our rights" WORKERS SHOUTING "THIEVES, CAPITALISTS" AS THEY MARCH PROTESTERS SHOUTING INTO MEGAPHONE ANOTHER BANNER HELD BY PROTESTERS READING "We will not pay for the crisi
  • Embargoed: 5th December 2010 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Greece
  • Country: Greece
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA9P3MEVD7TI33LS8IM1XBE0P6B
  • Story Text: Several hundred workers employed in local government services demonstrated in the city centre on Friday (November 19) over fears of wage cuts and job losses as part of the governments economic reforms in the country.
    "Thieves, capitalists!" the protesters shouted, carrying banners with slogans like "we will not pay for the crisis."
    The striking workers, which staged the strike for 24 hours, include rubbish collectors, they said they'll continue their walkout over the weekend and will not collect garbage.
    ''After the announcement of the budget it looks like there will be more wage cuts, more measures against workers. For us municipal workers, particularly with the new Kallikratis system, thousands will be unemployed. We are reacting and telling the government if it does not respond to all these issues, including wage contracts, conditions of working hours and benefits, our strike will continue," said Themis Balazopoulos, President of one of the municipal workers labour unions.
    The strike is nation wide.
    The Athens municipality has called on residents to keep their garbage at home on the weekend until the strike is over so as not to fill up rubbish bins.
    The government has introduced a new system for local administrations that will merge villages, hamlets, towns and cities together under one administration. The program, called "Kallikratis" is part of a cost cutting campaign to remove waste from municipalities. Under the program, several villages in the same region will be brought under the same administration under the nearest town, reducing the number of local councillors and mayors.
    The striking workers, who took their protest to the country's Ministry of Interior, said with the shrinkage jobs will be lost and wages will be cut. The government is also not renewing contracts of temporary workers in the public service in order to shrink the civil service.
    The protest comes a day after the government announced its draft budget for 2011, which seeks to further cut the deficit by two percent next year through cost cutting in the public sector as part of its program to clean up its finances which is monitored by the European Union and IMF.
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