Labor Brief, 10 February 2015

It's been about two weeks since the new SYRIZA-ANEL government has been in place, and the anti-labor initiatives of Greek capital, as well as its voracity for profit, continue, naturally, unabated.

Today, the fired workers of "Metropolis" music chain stores announced their dismay at the scandalous contract offered, five days before the elections, to their already convicted (for unpaid debts and wages) former employer, media businessman Andreas Kouris, calling on the new government to put an end to the parody of fundamental social justice at workers' express.

The employees of multinational Village Cinemas corp. issued a protest, regarding the mass firings the company undertook without warning, calling on the new Ministries to intervene to repeal the Presidential Decree 108, which allows such practices.

The workers of another multinational, Nestlé corporation Greece issued a protest against the company's forced introduction of individual contracts implying a further 10%-38% pay cut, noting that "unfortunately, the prediction we made that industrialists will still be here irrespectively of what form the new government will take, are verified." Their syndicate called for a general meeting on Sunday, so that workers can decide on the measures to be taken against the new employer offensive.

The workers at "Halkida Cement" undertook a mobilization, as the multinational "Lafarge" is trying to legally repeal the decision taken by the courts against the firing of 117 employees.

Yesterday, the Union of workers in the food industry representing workers in "Todaylicious", a food company, issued a protest regarding the vengeful firing of a company employee for class-conscious unionizing activity, underlining the precarious labor conditions, the intensification of work, and the reduction of wages which have created yet another labor inferno.

Carefully tucked under the carpet of media furore over "charismatic politicians" and their "unorthodox dresscode" and by the pseudo-suspense of "negotiations", the lives of the Greek working class are being pummeled today, just as they were yesterday; and their courageous struggle against exploitation continues, despite glaring global media indifference to the real core of the "Greek question", which in reality is, of course, a global question.