GEORGIOU SQUARE, PATRAS – 10:30
WITHDRAW THE ANTI-WORKING MONSTROSITY!
In the name of so-called “labor flexibility,” the ND government is introducing yet another disgraceful bill, tailor-made for the employers. This bill provides for 13-hour workdays for the same employer, 2-day contracts to cover employers’ urgent needs, overtime under rotating shifts, and even the abolition of summer leave!
Today, the Ministry of Labor, faithful to the anti-labor directives of the EU, seeks to enforce these directives to the letter, further intensifying work. Under EU Directive 2003/88, which stipulates 11 hours of rest between shifts, the working week effectively skyrockets to 78 hours!
Workers in the food sector have bitter experience of 10- and 12-hour workdays, which only led to huge increases in employers’ profits. In particular, in the packaging plants and food industries of our region, this bill essentially legalizes 13-hour shifts! The same applies to agricultural workers, both Greek and migrant, who, after completing their outdoor work, are compelled by employers to continue inside packaging plants.
As if this were not enough, the government shamelessly claims that this bill is demanded by workers themselves, allegedly so they will not need to work for two employers but only one! In other words, they admit that wages are insufficient to cover basic needs and propose intensified labor as a “solution.”
We, the workers, respond: we will throw this bill into the garbage!
We will not compromise, nor will we live merely to work. We are not machines; we are human beings! They sacrifice our lives daily in the name of profit, while the death toll and workplace injuries continue to rise!
We call on our colleagues to rally within the unions, alongside the Patras Labor Center and the Panhellenic Federation of Dairy, Food and Beverage Workers, to strengthen the struggle against the policies of capital and the government that serve all bourgeois parties.
We demand:
• The immediate withdrawal of the new anti-labor monstrosity. Abolition of all anti-labor laws that dismantle the 8-hour workday, impose flexibility, and promote precarious forms of employment.
• A 7-hour workday – 5-day week – 35-hour week, with wage increases and collective labor agreements.
• Health and safety measures in workplaces – our lives are not a cost.
• Restoration of collective gains, such as seniority allowances (2012–2023), continuation of collective agreements, and accumulation of benefits.
• Immediate measures against high prices.
• Funding for wages, pensions, healthcare, and education – not for NATO’s slaughterhouses. Disengagement of Greece from imperialist plans and wars.
EVERYONE ON STRIKE – 1 OCTOBER
GEORGIOU SQUARE, PATRAS – 10:30
THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
