Galery

1

Tell us more about the period when the movement of discontented had occupied Syntagma Square for more than two months in the summer. It must have been difficult for the sanitation employees to do their job safely.

Our main problem was that the discontented were in Syntagma permanently. It was hard to clean everywhere constantly. Our teams worked in constant shifts due to the increased need for maintaining hygiene. This burdened the budget too. The employees were on emergency duty. Our staff worked 24 hours a day.

The labour reserve measure comes and it is expected to sweep employees in local government organizations. At the same time, it is known that they have very strong and stubborn trade unions, which do not easily agree with the economic cuts imposed in this situation. What is your position?

The truth is that during the last big strike, trade unions had no demands onthe municipality. All protests were related to government policy, which we as representatives of the local government cannot influence effectively. The two main demands, which were the basis for the strike of employees in local government organizations and the sanitation departments were related to the changes in labour relations, the level of salaries and the labour reserve measure, which implicitly means dismissal. None of these topics is directly dependent on local authorities. The main burden fell on people who had to suffer the consequences of trade union protests of specific occupational groups. Athens was hostage to the trade unions of sanitation employees. Neither the mayor, nor the deputy mayor, or anyother representative of the municipality could come out and say that he could solve the problems or at least some of them.

What exactly was your role in the management of the strike crisis when Athens was buried in waste?

As a municipal government, we took the initiative to assist in establishing a dialogue between the government and the trade unions on specific topics. This became a major priority of the mayor during the protests of sanitation employees. Even when the strike escalated to the extreme and the union of civil servants (ADEDY) and the union of private sector employees were about to organize a 48-hour nationwide strike we agreed that the reserve staff clean the way where the  protest march would walk. Results can be achieved through dialogue. The municipality helped in avoiding the final measure of civil mobilization of staff and equipment when the government announced it. Our ultimate goal is always to be able to contribute to the development of a dialogue between government and trade unions, but we do not want to fall into a situation in which citizens will again become hostage to the demands of different social groups.

For employees to strike against a particular employer, in this case the municipality or the city council, which are able to resolve the demands is one thing, but a general strike against the general policies determined by the current economic conditions and the decision for which is beyond the scope of employers, is something quite different.