Several Greek unions from different sectors have called strikes between Tuesday and Friday (Oct. 25), raising a series of demands, ranging from better pay and the signing of collective bargaining agreements with employers and the state.
Specifically, the Panhellenic Seafarers Union (PNO) declared a 48-hour strike starting on Tuesday. The union demands the signing and implementation of a collective bargaining agreement with a 12% rise in wages.
Industrial actions by this specific union usually result in a complete stoppage of ferry boat routes to and from the Greek mainland to a myriad of islands in the Aegean and Ionian Seas.
The union representing kindergarten and primary school teachers is demanding salary increases, restoration of the so-called “13th and “14th salaries” (half a monthly salary tacked on before Easter as a bonus, another half salary in the summer and a full extra salary in December), and a return to the salary scales of 2016-2017. The aforementioned bonuses were cut for all wage-earners in the civil service and wider public sector during the very first institutional bailout for the country in 2010.
The teachers’ union also demands the equivalency between permanent and substitute teachers, as well as an immediate establishment of a nine-month parental leave for substitute teachers.
Meanwhile, a union representing school janitors has called a strike for Oct. 24 and 25 to demand more hirings to cover what it calls increasing needs for schools, as well as full-time permanent status for its members instead of fixed-term contracts, the signing of a collective labor agreement, certification of professional skills, certification of cleaning and disinfection product, as well as timely salary payments.
