Greek Public Transport Workers Embark on Another 24-Hour Strike

______________________________

On Thursday, workers of practically all forms of public transport in Greece announced a 24-hour strike to protest against wage cuts to save money. Trains and passenger ferries are at a standstill across the country, and in Athens, buses, trolleys, and urban rail are idle for the next 24-hours. At the same time, the metro and trams still run in the Greek capital… home to over a third of the entire population of the country. Last week, the rightwing New Democracy government invoked constitutional law to end a 10-day public transport strike in Athens, declaring compulsory civil mobilisation. Now, engine drivers and service personnel on the metro and trams must work or face arrest.

31 January 2013

Voice of Russia World Service

http://english.ruvr.ru/2013_01_31/Greek-transport-workers-embark-on-another-24-hour-strike/

Advertisement

Greece Braces for General Strike Against Austerity

______________________________

Greek doctors, lawyers, engineers, journalists, and other workers will go on strike on Wednesday, one day prior to national protests against the government’s austerity measures. A number of Greek trades unions plan to march and hold a rally in front of the Finance Ministry in Athens. Protests against the austerity measures involving tens of thousands people resumed in Greece last month after the country’s coalition government took office in July. September rally participants threw stones at police and Molotov cocktails at the parliament building in the central square, whilst police responded with tear gas. The Greek government announced that it’d cut government spending by about 12 billion Euros (485 billion Roubles. 15.75 billion USD. 9.75 billion UK Pounds); however, coalition leaders in parliament claimed that the debate over austerity is still in progress.

17 October 2012

RIA-Novosti

http://en.ria.ru/world/20121017/176686386.html

 

Greek Tax Officers Go Out On Strike

______________________________

Greek tax officers closed their offices and joined the continuing strikes in protest against wage reductions and forthcoming public sector layoffs, as well as against unfair taxes and exactions that they feel the government is about to declare. In the next few days, the Cabinet should decide on almost 12 billion Euros (485 billion Roubles. 15.5 billion USD. 9.6 million UK Pounds) in austerity measures in exchange for another EU/IMF loan of 31 billion Euros (1.25 trillion Roubles. 40 billion USD. 25 billion UK Pounds).

Observers expect the forthcoming round of belt-tightening to result in further cuts to wages and pensions. Athens Metro workers and tram drivers went on strike yesterday. Also striking are judges, hotel personnel, doctors, and chemists. A general 24-hour strike is due in Greece on the 26th of this month. The Greek government agreed with Troika experts on the increase of the pension age from 65 to 67 in a move that will enable Greece to save more than one billion Euros (40 billion Roubles. 1.3 billion USD. 800 million UK Pounds) annually. The Troika wants the coalition cabinet of Antonis Samaras to agree to austerity measures to the tune of 12 billion Euros for 2013 and 2014. However, the parliamentary coalition partners of his New Democracy Party, the PASOK Socialist Party and the moderate Democratic Left Party, oppose those measures. Both PASOK and Democratic Left are against major cuts in social spending.

Workers on the metro, trams, and urban trains as well as doctors, hotel staff, and some university professors in Athens have gone on a 24-hour strike over the government’s intention to cut salaries. More protests are due on 26 September, when the country’s leading trade unions shall launch a general strike. A 24-hour labour action by transport workers is due to begin shortly, and a series of warning strikes by state employees, are expected to paralyze Athens in the next few days.

The unions argue that the amount of money allocated by public transport companies on wages declined by half during the crisis. The strikers are also unhappy with an expected increase in the cost of public transport and demand that the government provide free transport passes to the unemployed, students, and pensioners.

Greek judges joined a strike action by state sector employees who’ve protested wage cuts. As the state reduced judges’ salaries by as much as 38 per cent over the past few weeks, judges’ associations warn that further pay cuts are putting their constitutional position as guarantors of the court system under threat. Whilst on strike, judges are hearing only cases nearing the statute of limitations.

The Greek government tabled a bill to halve the monthly salary of the President to 11,500 Euros (462,000 Roubles. 14,900 USD. 9,200 UK Pounds) and reduce his monthly hospitality expenses by one-third to 6,240 Euros (250,000 Roubles. 8,000 USD. 5,000 UK Pounds). The presidential pension is in for similar cuts. The measures should save the Greek treasury 350,000 Euros (14.1 million Roubles. 450,000 USD. 280,000 UK Pounds) each year.

21 September 2012

Voice of Russia World Service

http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_09_21/Greek-tax-officers-go-out-on-strike/

Editor’s Note:

The New Democracy slimers (who are equivalent to the US Republican Party), want to spare the Affluent Effluent by kicking the iaias and papous in the face. That’s why the Church of Greece is against the cuts in social spending. It’s not just the cuts… it’s the fact that the idle rich shall continue to party whilst poor people beg on the streets. That’s what Willy and Lyin’ Ryan want in the USA. That’s why we must vote on 6 November to re-elect the President. He’s no prize, to be sure, but he won’t club poor people in the face to benefit the rich like himself. After all, he paid a lower proportion of his income in tax than many making only 1 percent of his income. That’s called evil… that’s called Mammon-worship.

Orthodox people should be aware that the konvertsy (like all unhinged cultists) favour Willy’s nasty kleptocratic dreams. Not only should we vote against Willy, we should clean out his supporters in the Church… they support objective evil, full stop. Trust me, being for the illegalisation of abortion is a piffle when put in the balance with insane warmongering, rampant greed, pandering to sectarian crazies, and stacking the deck further in favour of the fatcats. On the one hand, we have a small amount of evil admixed with much good… on the other we have monstrous evil wearing a fig-leaf of “morality”. Our Lord Christ promised us that the wheat and tares would be intermixed until the Last Day. So be it… that means that we must choose the least evil path (not the “best”, for that’s not available). That means that all decent Christians must reject the money-grubbing consumerist greed of the Republican Party. It means that one shouldn’t listen to the likes of Fathausen, Freddie M-G, Mattingly, Reardon, Dreher, et al… they’re all shills for the Radical Godless Right (especially in their pandering to sectarian cultists (for that is what Mormonism and Pentecostalism are)).

There’s NO perfection out there…

BMD

Kaluga Benteler Workers Win Strike

______________________________

On Sunday, a strike coordinator said that workers at the Benteler plant in Kaluga, southwest of Moscow, ended their strike after management promised them a new labour agreement and higher wages. Labour union activist Dmitri Kozhnev told Ekho Moskvy radio that negotiators, who included plant management and Kaluga Oblast Governor Anatoly Artamonov, pledged to meet all the demands of the striking workers. Lenta.ru news website reported that Kozhnev said that the union didn’t declare an official end to the strike, but the workers left the plant’s premises and went home.

Kozhnev said that work to draft a collective labour agreement would begin on Monday. He didn’t say when it might be completed. About 100 workers of the Benteler plant, which produces car parts, including for a neighbouring Volkswagen factory, participated in the strike, which began on Thursday. Tensions grew after worker pickets prevented products from being shipped from the plant, although a threat of police intervention never materialised. The union’s main demand was an increase in salaries, which currently average only 18,000 rubbles (610 USD. 458 Euros. 381 UK Pounds) a month… a sum that workers said is far below wages at other plants in Kaluga Oblast, which is a major industrial hub.

1 April 2012

RIA-Novosti

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20120401/172536040.html

Editor’s Note:

It’s clear that VVP isn’t kissing up to the moneybags as the Republicans do in the USA. Just watch… he’s going to squeeze the godless Western Liberals (“conservatives” in Anglosphere terms) who came to Russia to enrich themselves at the expense of the Russian working people. Then, he’s going to go after the Russian oligarchs. Trust me on this.

It’s a RED year…

BMD