“The murderers of the working class’s rights have returned to the scene of the crime.”

“The President of the General Confederation of Greek Workers on the right, the Minister of Labour in the middle, and the President of the Greek Industrialists on the left.”

The ink of the vile bill on the 13-hour workday had not even dried when the accomplices in abolishing the 8-hour day and the fixed daily worktime returned with a provocative and unacceptable “social agreement.”

The New Democracy government is exploiting the anti-worker EU Directive 2041/2022, which, in the name of the “autonomy” of member states, protects the dismantling of collective bargaining and legitimises state intervention in determining the minimum wage, opening the way even for its reduction. Within the framework of the capital’s strategy and the unacceptable EU directive voted for by ND, PASOK and SYRIZA, a directive whose red line is the defence of competitiveness and the profitability of corporations, a new bill will come, with the main aim of inserting all the anti-worker regulations of the last 15 years into sectoral Collective Labour Agreements.

The celebrations about “the end of the memoranda,” the praises for the value of “social peace and class collaboration,” and the nonsense claiming that “employers and workers share common interests in the development of the capitalist economy,” are a provocation to the vast majority of workers who survive on a net salary below €1,000 a month, who are forced to work two jobs to make ends meet, facing soaring prices in energy, fuel, food, exorbitant rents, overwhelming expenses for health and education, and heavy taxation, at a time when the profitability of corporations is breaking all records.

The whole truth is revealed in the words of the president of Greek Industrialists Association, who identified as one of the causes of the crisis the fact that “wage increases were agreed without giving the necessary importance to productivity and competitiveness.” The Minister of Labour came to add that the Agreement gives businesses “an environment with clear rules, without continuous or open-ended negotiations.” In other words, the aim of the bill is to silence workers’ struggles for wages and contracts and force them to accept the crumbs falling from the table of big employers.

This shameful agreement between the government, corporations, and the General Confederation of Workers of Greece (GSEE) labour-lieutenants includes:

1. a) the formation of a suffocating framework that restricts the action of Federations, essentially placing them under the hostage-ship of employers’ associations and the GSEE in order to sign sectoral Collective Labour Agreements. This will result in an even tighter embrace between Federations and employers’ associations, securin, through the sectoral agreements, the entire anti-worker framework that has created starvation wages and stretches working time to 13 hours a day.
2. b) the maintenance and perpetuation of the memorandum era mechanism imposing frozen wages, lower in real value than wages in 2009. This is achieved by maintaining the abolition of free collective bargaining both for the minimum wage and for sectoral wages. It also perpetuates all the anti-worker conditions required for extending a Collective Labour Agreement, within the limits of “fiscal endurance and competitiveness,” such as the requirement for trade unions to submit reports proving that the terms of a sectoral agreement do not harm the competitiveness of businesses in that sector.
3. c) the maintenance of all memorandum-era measures that undermined Collective Labour Agreements, such as the abolition of the principle of the most favourable regulation and the ability for enterprise-level agreements to override sectoral ones, even when the latter are more favourable.
4. d) the maintenance of the General Registry of Trade Unions (GEMISOE), and with the signatures of the GSEE labour-lieutenants, despite the fact that unions have, through their struggle, turned it into a scrap of paper and have even appealed its unconstitutionality, with the provisional ruling of the Council of State being favourable to the unions. The unacceptable requirement for unions to register in the Registry in cases related to arbitration or extension of a Collective Agreement also remains. The temporary manoeuvre of not requiring unions’ registries to be filed in GEMISOE cannot hide the deeper aims of the government and employers to control unions and promote electronic surveillance.
5. e) the maintenance of the memorandum era provision that prohibits unions from unilaterally appealing to Organisation for Mediation and Arbitration (OMED). The attempt to “cover up” this anti-worker measure with “faster procedures” in case of disagreements changes nothing in essence. Furthermore, employers retain the right to challenge OMED decisions in court whenever such decisions do not serve their interests.

The dirty role of the GSEE leadership must be condemned by all trade union organisations.

For seven months, the government, employers’ associations, and the GSEE labour-lieutenants negotiated in secret, behind the backs of the country’s workers and Federations, to produce this monstrosity. The PASOK, ND, and SYRIZA officials in the GSEE leadership bear enormous responsibility for their blatant support of the ND government. It is now clear to everyone why they were strike-breakers during the major strike on 14 October against the law imposing the 13-hour day, why they refused to call strike action against the Hatzidakis, Georgiadis, and Kerameos laws, and why they helped cover up the Tempi crime.

For seven months, while unions have been fighting against anti-worker laws, fighting to sign agreements with wage increases and stable working hours, the GSEE leadership has been stabbing them in the back. Not only did they fail to inform workers; not only did they systematically refuse to convene the General Council of the Confederation, of which Federation presidents who sign sectoral agreements are members, but there isn’t even any official notification or decision by the GSEE executive for this shameful signature!

The appeal to “realism” instead of “maximalism” is nothing but submission to the demands of the business groups and the political line that constantly demands sacrifices from workers for the profits of capital. This line, upheld by the GSEE and the forces of employer- and government-controlled trade unionism, must be decisively defeated. Enough waiting.

Mass participation in unions, the creation of dozens of new unions in workplaces, and a shift in the balance of forces, so that workers free themselves from the policy of class collaboration and sacrifice for capital’s profits, are necessary conditions for the dynamic growth of the labour movement.

We call on all unions, especially all Federations, to take into their own hands the struggle for sectoral Collective Labour Agreements, working time, and wages. We will not allow employers’ associations, the government, and the GSEE labour-lieutenants, those who have surrendered the National General Collective Agreement to the state, to tighten the noose around our necks.

We demand the immediate convening of the GSEE General Council and the condemnation of this disgraceful Agreement.

We call for the militant response of unions not only against the new bill but to launch a counter-offensive.

We turn with confidence to workers and their unions, highlighting the power of organised struggle and the demands that meet our modern needs, against the policy of monopolies and capitalist barbarity.

For a 7-hour day – 5-day week – 35-hour working week and for Collective Agreements with substantial wage increases.

We demand:

• Stable and continuous daily working time: 7 hours, 5 days, 35 hours per week, guaranteed through Collective Labour Agreements, so we can secure the free time we need.
• Substantial increases in wages, pensions, and social benefits, so we can live with dignity from our work. The restoration of the 13th and 14th salary for public sector workers, and the 13th and 14th pension for pensioners.

• Abolition of all anti-worker laws undermining wages and contracts.

• Restoration of free collective bargaining for the National Collective Labour Agreement and for sectoral agreements.

• Restoration of achievements such as the stolen seniority allowances (triennial salary increases) for the 2012–2023 period, the principle of the most favourable contract, and the payment of overtime work.

• Abolition of GEMISOE and all anti-worker provisions that restrict trade-union rights and freedoms.