Breakthrough in university cleanup
In a bid to break an impasse at Thessaloniki’s Aristotle University, where a 70-day sit-in by municipal cleaners has led to the buildup of piles of trash and intense animosity, the institution’s rector and unionists representing striking workers on Wednesday agreed to contribute to a solution.
Following talks mediated by local prosecutor Evangelos Mademlis, rector Yiannis Mylopoulos and the unionists agreed to create a joint committee of legal experts that will examine the workers’ grievances. The aim is for a solution to be reached by Monday on the issue of the workers’ contracts and salary demands. The workers, for their part, must stop a protracted sit-in that has turned the campus into a trash-filled battleground where students and leftists supporting the protesters have clashed. The employees claim to be owed money by the university for campus cleaning services outsourced to the private contractor that employs them. Eleven were found guilty of disturbing the peace for their part in the sit-in.
