While the Greek government has joined the European Union bandwagon against Russia, Greece’s major labor unions declared a 24-hour, nationwide strike today against rising prices and has called for collective wage agreements and salary increases. The unions said they were responding to a “deepening crisis” of rising prices and squeezed incomes. The strikers are holding a demonstration in central Athens and are disrupting transport, ferries, schools and public hospitals. The two union federations represent about 2.5 million public and private sector workers.
“For the last 14 years, workers have been carrying the burden of a deep crisis that has affected everyone’s incomes and lives,” said GSEE, the country’s umbrella private sector union. “As the years go by the crisis is constantly deepening, the burdens remain, our rights are shrinking.”
While neoliberal media, including the Kathimerini daily, claim the rising prices are the result of the Ukraine war, the reality is that Greece’s annual consumer inflation reached a 25-year high of 7.2% in February, as well as rising costs in energy, housing and transportation.
