Bakers set to shut up shop
Bakers are ready to shut their stores in order to protest their profession?s inclusion in the list of sectors for liberalization.
In the coming days the Hellenic Federation of Bakers (OAE) will hold an extraordinary congress of its member associations, while the Athens association has reportedly reached a decision to shut down the capital?s bakeries.
OAE president Michalis Mousios told a press conference on Wednesday that the Development Ministry had originally promised bakers that the legal provisions from the 2007 law protecting traditional baking would be upheld through a presidential decree.
However, a recent meeting of the federation with Alternate Development Minister Sokratis Xynidis suggested the opposite.
“It has now become a certainty that the state considers us surplus as it wants the big supermarkets to get even bigger,» Mousios argued.
The law from 2007 provides for the exclusive sale of bread products by bakeries, patisseries, dairy stores and supermarkets which must have an exclusive area of at least 12 square meters dedicated to bread production.