Workers take to the streets to oppose austerity on Labor Day
Much of central Athens was cordoned off on Friday as labor union members gathered for demonstrations to mark Labor Day with banners expressing continued opposition to austerity.
SYRIZA banners wielded at a gathering in the city center on Friday morning underlined the party’s commitment to honoring its so-called red lines in negotiations with Greece’s creditors — chiefly the protection of pensions, the labor market, state assets and a vehement opposition to any tax increases. One banner proclaimed that “nothing can stop a determined people” with others repeating a key pre-election demand by SYRIZA for a lightening of the country’s debt burden.
A key demand of the General Confederation of Greek Labor, the private sectors’ umbrella union is the restoration of the minimum wage
The civil servants’ union, ADEDY, was our in force too, protesting against the “decapitation of rights” and “the return to a labor and social Middle Ages.”
Similar protests were planned for Thessaloniki and other major Greek cities.
