Just before 2012:

400 workers in the steel factory of Aspropyrgos (near Athens), Halyvourgiki Inc. v
Citigroup Global Markets Limited, are in their 60th day of striking, as their struggle is
becoming almost emblematic for the working class of the country. Many solidarity
actions, as well as events that aim at the economic and political support of the
strike are taking place every week in neighborhoods and cities. Representatives
from the popular assemblies of neighborhoods, grassroots worker’s unions, non-
parliamentary parties of the left, anarchist collectives and social centers, as well as
students and pensioners walk through the factory’s gates everyday to express their
support and show their solidarity either by economic sums that are added to the
striker’s autonomously organised fund or by donating food and other basic products
that the strikers need.

The 400 workers refused to accept the bosses’ intimidation who imposed a change
in their contracts so that they would work 5 hours per day with a 40% wage cut.
After the refusal, the company sacked 50 workers. Then all the workers went on
a permanent strike till their demands are satisfied and their co-workers are back
at work. Even though the worker’s union is controlled by the Communist Party of
Greece (KKE) this has not posed a barrier to a growing movement of solidarity from
different parts of the radical political scene in Greece.

The steel workers struggle is of course not the only one taking place today at the
workplace. In the contrary, during the last year we are witnessing a new phase of
numerous, confrontational and hard class struggles in Greece. This is taking place
as people have been totally disillusioned after the failure of the rare and spread out
1 or 2-day general strikes that took place during 2010 and 2011 (they were called
by the big unions of the private and public sector). The general strikes didn’t pose a
threat to the greek state and the bosses so they just went ahead with the austerity
measures. These measures cancelled workers rights and are leading to a great
devaluation of work.

Therefore, due to this disillusionment, we are now witnessing that struggles have
started developing at a smaller scale: that of the restructuring of work relations,
in the workplace. These struggles are mostly related to companies that either
closed down their business claiming they could not survive (essentially they just
experienced reduced profits) or to businesses that have stopped paying their
employees for the same reason. Even though these struggles are not taking the
spectacular form of demonstrations or clashes in the streets, and even though they
constitute (for the time being) a defensive response to the attack of the capitalist
class, they still are very important for the struggling working classes that live in
greece. Because these struggles are articulating that the crisis is not one related
to the “nation” (national crisis), but rather to social class. The antagonism or
competition does not exist between the greek nation and some “foreign profiteers”

(IMF, EU and the debt capital), but between the working class and the local,
national and international capital. It is the greek capital that is trying to hold on to
its profits and pass on the burdens of its debt to the people.
The main subjects of the struggles have been the service sector workers. However,
more recently is has also been the industry sector workers, even though Greece
is (wrongly) said to be a country that “produces nothing”. While it is true that
agricultural and industrial production has been significantly reduced, the greek
capital was transferred to the Balkans during the 90s’, where the multinational
proletariats were brutally exploited and lots of capital was accumulated. At the
same time, the exploitation of immigrant farm workers increased exponentially in
industrial-scale agriculture in greece. During the 2000s the national capital invested
in the services sector and the construction industry (eg.olympic games in 2004 and
big public works) created a big part of today’s debt, and exploited migrants in a
cannibalistic way at the construction sites.

Other industrial workers struggles
One hundred steel workers of “KONTI” in Volos city guarded the factory’s gate for
60 days (to prevent the company from having access to the production), demanding
that the factory is reopened and their 6 sacked co-workers are given back their jobs.
Also, same tactics are being followed for 20 days now by 35 workers on alluminium
factrory of Peristeri in Athens who are have been unpaid for one year. In response,
the bosses sued 38 workers and unionists and declared “we are first closing your
houses and then ours”.

The struggles in the two big milk production industries (AGNO and MEVGAL) have
been victorious. The workers of AGNO clashed with the police outside the factory
and achieved the re-employment of four (out of 8) workers that had been sacked
due to their involvement in the actions. Also, the drivers of the lorries transferring
the milk refused to pick it up showing their solidarity to the factory workers. The
11th October strike in the MEVGAL factory in Larissa was sparked by the bosses’
decision to sack 1 union representative and 17 workers and at the same time
reduce their salary. The workplace union was very insisting and organized a 800-
strong event at the factory’s gates. The company backed down on all its decisions in
fear of loosing profits as the milk was going out of date.
Also, there have been clashes between 330 workers of the pharmaceutical company
of Gerolmatos in Athens on the 30 November, because the bosses tried to take
away big amounts of produce from the factory’s storage place. The company is
still trying to impose a 1 day work per week plan and has not paid the workers for
months.

The workers at the Mass Media sector
Due to the economic recession, the profits of the Mass Media companies have
being reduced considerably, as there has been a significant cut of spending for
advertising. So, the mass media bosses who have made a lot of money, not just
from advertising, but also from money given to them for bribing purposes (political
parties etc.), are not willing to accept earning less profits and are trying to pass on
this ‘burden’ to the workers.

The employees of ELEFTHEROTYPIA (3rd biggest newspaper) are on strike since the
22nd of December. They have not been paid since August, so numerous 48hr strikes
took place before December. The bosses are claiming that they cannot pay the
employees because they cannot get out a bank loan. However, the last loan was
spent on paying shares to shareholders and not paying the employees wages.
The 620 employees of ALTER TV Channel have been unpaid for 5 to 10 months
and have gone on strike 3 times in the last year. Since the 10th of November 470
employees stopped the channel’s programme and have replaced it with a card
instead, which informs the viewers of their bosses choices. They are also guarding
their workplace day and night, making sure its closed and demanding their wages.
The text in the channel’s programme also informs viewers about struggles in other
workplaces!

Employees in the services sector
The employees of Vodafone won an important struggle. Doing a 3day strike in
Thessaloniki and one day strike in Athens they managed to prevent the plans of
their bosses to change their 8 hour contracts to 5 hour ones, with the analogous
reduction in wages.

The multistore NOTOS COM tried to change all employees contracts from 5day to
4day contracts and reduce their wages by 20%, as well as cut down the employer’s
national insurance contributions. The workplace unions reacted with a 24hour strike
on the 1st of December, in which all employees participated. They guarded their
workplaces in Athens, Piraeus and Thessaloniki and made the company back down,
as the bosses were afraid of strikes during the Christmas shopping season.
The hotel Porto Karas in Chalkidiki (famous tourist destination in northern Greece)
owes its 800 employees 3.000.000 euros (3 wages in total), even though the
company increased its profit by 5% profit last year. Since the 2nd of December the
mass assembly of the employees reacted by organizing a rolling 48hour strike until
the 30th of December.

Precarious workers and the unemployed
During October and November the temporary employees of the Hellenic Statistical
Authority carried out a population census, but were not paid for it. In Athens,
Thessaloniki, Patras and Lesvos they organised demonstrations and squatted (just
Thessaloniki) the HSA. They were asking for their payment, since the state refused
to pay them for 6months. The census employees were mostly unemployed people
that usually do temping jobs, but through autonomous organising they achieved to
receive their payments.
K.S.
31-12-2011