Labor Day / Calling GSEE and ADEDY to participate in the 24-hour strike

GSEE is calling for participation in the 24-hour general strike for Labor Day, Wednesday, May 1st, pointing out that “for the unions, May Day is a day of strike and not a postponed holiday”.

The General Confederation of Greek Workers, with the slogan “Eight hours everywhere, rights everywhere, the fight continues” calls all workers, pensioners, the unemployed, to the 24-hour general strike, as well as to the Trade Unions’ Rally, at 11.00 in the morning in Klathmonos Square and at the rallies of the Labor Centers.

“We face daily the consequences of precision and profiteering, the soaring cost of living, housing and energy costs” she adds, among other things, in her call and underlines that “we demand:

– Respect for our value and personality.

– Respect for our health and safety.

– Respect for labor income.

– Respect for our fundamental individual & collective labor rights.

– Respect for our social security rights.

Together for the collective and individual rights of workers, social justice and world peace”.

In turn, the Athens Labor Center calls the unions and workers of Athens, the unemployed, pensioners, young men and women, to the 24-hour General Strike announced by the General Confederation of Greek Workers (GSEE) for Labor Day on Holy Wednesday May 1, 2024 and at the union rally, at 11 am, in Klathmonos Square.

Specifically, the Athens Labor Center states the following in its announcement: “We pay tribute to Labor Day, to the struggles of the workers who lost their lives in the bloody uprisings of Chicago, fighting for social justice, human and labor rights.

May Day 2024 finds the country’s workers facing an unprecedented living crisis for another year. Punctuality, social poverty, restriction of labor rights, precariousness and insecurity in workplaces are the dominant consequences of the applied policies.

For this reason, we fight for a present and a better future for us and our children, without precision, social poverty, job insecurity and inequalities. On this historic day, we unite our voices and together we give a competitive strike “present” to the call of the unions on Wednesday May 1st.

We strike and demonstrate, demanding the abolition of all anti-labor provisions, which lead to the strangulation of collective and individual labor rights, a minimum wage corresponding to the needs of workers, free trade union activity, without employer interventionism”

ADEDY: 138 years since the workers’ uprising

The Executive Committee of ADEDY, for its part, calls on public employees to attend the strike and the strike gatherings that will take place on Wednesday, May 1st, throughout the country, noting that the ADEDY strike gathering in Athens will take place on 11:00am, in Korai Square.

As he points out, this year marks 138 years since the workers’ uprising in Chicago in 1886. “May 1st is a symbol in the struggle of workers all over the world for better working conditions. It is a day of remembrance and honor for those who sacrificed, who gave heroic struggles for our conquests” ADEDY emphasized and adds that “the struggles of the workers of Chicago and later, achieved with sacrifices the establishment of the 8-hour shift, Social Security, the defense of maternity, normal leave, trade union rights, Collective Labor Agreements, but also access to social goods, free Health, Education, Culture services”.

As he underlines, “the New Democracy government has targeted these conquests of the workers, since with the anti-labor bills it passed in the Parliament, it abolished the 8-hour day, the collective agreements, as well as our right to strike. He privatized the supplementary insurance and the EFKA and drastically reduced spending on Health and Education at a time when the pandemic is galloping and we have mourned, so far, thousands of dead. He thus dissolves the three pillars of the welfare state: Health, Education, Social Insurance”.

ADEDY concludes by pointing out that the “great strike mobilization of February 28 sent the message to the Government that the workers in the country are fighting to claim real increases in their salaries and not mock increases, like those given for 2024. The workers’ mobilizations will continue on May Day and with the 24-hour strike on May 21.

We claim:

– Increases in our salaries, immediately, 10%

– Restoration HERE and NOW of gifts to the State as well

– Abolition of the 2% unemployment levy

– Unfreezing of the Salary Scale for the two years 2016-17

– Tax-free at 12,000 euros

– Increase and extension of the allowance for dangerous and unhealthy work.

– Recruitment of permanent staff to cover the thousands of organizational vacancies that exist in the State, especially in the fields of Health, Education, Social Security, etc.

– Supporting the NSS with generous funding.

– Repeal of the Hatzidakis Law (N4808/21).

– At the same time, we say no to the privatization of public organizations and bodies”.