The monstrous anti-labour bill of the government, which has already been rejected in the workers’ consciousness, was adopted by the Plenum of the Greek Parliament on 16 June 2021. It was voted in principle only by governmental MPs with 158 votes in favour and 142 against.

All the previous days when the bill was being discussed in the Parliament, the Parliamentary Group of the KKE castigated its anti-labour provisions, revealing its class nature that is in favour of the interests of capital. The GS of the CC of the KKE, D. Koutsoumbas, took the floor and referred in detail to the mechanism of exploitation of the workers, which is further exacerbated with this bill, expanding the daily working time to 10 hours based on individual contracts between employees and employers. The GS of the CC of the KKE also referred to the provisions that strike a blow to the collective agreements, facilitate dismissals, and hinder the right to strike as well as trade union action in general, highlighting the fact that all these measures have already been drawn up in the EU and being implemented in many Member States.

D. Koutsoumbas, concluded his speech in the Parliament as follows: “The anti-labour bill that you are preparing to vote for today is, according to the Minister of Labour, a bill of the contemporary era! If so, then why do they take the working conditions back a century, turning workers into slaves in the 21^st century? Why do they bring about an increase instead of a decrease in working time, work from dusk till dawn,  persecutions of trade union, and strike-breaking? In the contemporary era, of the huge development of technology and science, what is contemporary is to reduce working time, to work 7 hours–5 days–35 hours a week. What is contemporary is to secure a job for everyone, with satisfactory terms of pay and rights; and not to return to the working conditions of the Middle Ages. That is why your monstrous law will remain on paper, like so many other unjust laws before that.”

At the same time, tens of thousands of demonstrators that participated in the strike rally, were protesting against the anti-labour bill all over Greece.

Demonstrations took place not only in the morning, bur also in the afternoon. The GS of the CC of the KKE, Dimitris Koutsoumbas, as well as the entire Parliamentary Group of the KKE and the Party MEPs attended the mass rally outside the Parliament.

Nikos Mavrokefalos, member of the Executive Secretariat of All Workers’ Militant Front (PAME) and of the administration of the Labour Centre of Athens addressed a speech and stressed among other things: “The government thinks that it will get rid of the workers and the unions, that tomorrow it will offer this bill as a gift to its EU partners in order to get another 60 billion euros to fund the business groups and add them to the 240 billion euro debt that already burdens the workers and people’s shoulders. They think that with this law they will put obstacles in the action of the unions and the workers. They think that in the face of the intensification of exploitation by business groups the workers will sit on their hands (…) They are very much mistaken”. He added that: “The workers through their struggle have the power to consign this bill to the dustbin. That is why we do not stop here, colleagues. This is where we start. From the next day and every day, everyone must join their unions; everyone must struggle for our contemporary needs to be met, as dictated by the progress of science and productivity”._

Thessaloniki

Athens

Thessaloniki

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