On the 24th of June, strikers in three of the largest sectors of the economy, Construction, Food and Beverages manufacturing, and Food Service – Tourism, united their voices, organizing their strike battles with their unions across the country.
Indeed, after their sectoral rallies in Athens, the strikers marched all together outside the Ministry of Labour, sending a clear and resounding message of struggle against the “costing” of their lives, against sacrifices for the profits and wars of capital.
Yesterday’s battle was a milestone in the escalation of the struggle. It showed in the clearest way that this policy, this rotten system of profit and war, has an opponent: organised collective struggle through the unions, in conflict with the efforts of industrialists, the government, the bourgeois parties, and the leadership of the General Confederation of Workers of Greec (GSEE) to impose “heads down”, so that rights and gains are crushed, starvation wages and rubber-band working hours are imposed, and conditions of “danger – death” become part of earning a day’s wage.
This is the policy that will dress itself up in September at the Thessaloniki International Fair, through all its representatives, the government and the convenient opposition, old and new “saviours”, who will parade their programmes of support for capital. Facing them will be the great popular river from all over the country on 5 September in Thessaloniki, taking the baton from yesterday’s strikes and from the mobilisations being prepared in other sectors, in the private and public sector, even during July.
The slogans on the banners of the three sectors expressed the common ground of their demands: Collective Labour Agreements, wage increases, a reduction in working time, health and safety measures, as well as the specific demands of each sector.