The wife of the deceased worker in Aristi was shocked

“We will fight to reveal all those responsible for the death of Vassilis, we will fight for all the responsibilities to be attributed and for those who, on the scale of a worker’s life and their profits, to pay, chose the profits.” The above promise was given by Vassilis Dakaletsis, vice-president of the Builders’ Union of Ioannina on behalf of all the Builders and workers from all sectors who participated on the evening of Thursday 30 May in the mobilization of the Union to claim safety measures in the workplaces, on the occasion of the tragic labor “accident” in Aristi Zagoriou.

It is recalled that on Monday at noon in Aristi, Zagoriou, a builder tragically died when he and his colleague were working on drainage projects and were crushed by soil that caved in while they were opening a trench, without a single post being placed as a protection measure. The intervention of the trade unionists who were present at the site, including the Yannis Tassiolas, president of the Federation of Builders and candidate for MEP.

Dozens of fellow builders of the 62nd year participated in the mobilization, expressing their sadness and anger, while among them they were also “present” family of the deceased worker, his wife and children. He also participated Nikos Exarchos, president of the Labor Center of Ioannina and member of the KKE, as well as Tasos Tokas, KKE MEP candidate.

The wife of the deceased Vassilis was shocked

The wife of the deceased Vassilis addressed the attendees with rage and anger. Among other things, he underlined: “I swear to my husband, whom I buried yesterday, that whoever is responsible will pay dearly. My husband will not go “dog in the vineyard”. Let there be no more death in that grave where they are made to work, willy-nilly, for the daily wage, for their wife and children. And you workers who go in there, don’t go in again. All together, guys.”

“Crime Number 15”

It was preceded by the speech of the vice-president of the union who, among other things, underlined that Vassilis was the 15th builder who lost his life since the beginning of the year in the projects advertised as development. “Development for the few, the construction companies and the large contractors” he emphasized to point out immediately after that the responsibilities for the prescribed crime lie with the contractor construction company, the Region of Epirus as the supervising authority of the project and SEPE. At the same time, he pointed out that the endless hours of work, the intensification and the terrorism to finish the projects an hour earlier, are the conditions that lead to workplace crimes. This is where the institutional framework that all the governments have co-shaped leads, he argued, recalling the “Hatzidakis” and “Georgiadis” anti-labor laws while denouncing “sham” controls on construction projects. Additionally, he emphasized that the checks carried out on the causes of occupational accidents are not oriented towards employer responsibility, while there is often an attempt to shift the responsibility onto the backs of the employee who suffered the “accident”, the Safety Technician, etc.

V. Dakaletsis described as despicable the statements of the Regional Governor of Epirus who claimed that the deceased worker was experienced and that the pit was not deep enough to need support, wanting to “pave” the ground for the employer’s permanent tactic of “blaming” its crimes , in the “bad time”. He spoke at length about the industry’s struggles to take protective measures. He recalled the 4 nationwide sectoral strikes in the last year, the struggle of the builders in the Attica Metro and Elliniko these days, to underline that the demands of the builders for SSE, emblem and protection measures are timely, fair and necessary.