The strike at Greek Steelworks was declared illegal

The strike of the workers at Greek Steelworks was declared illegal yesterday by court order. The steelworkers have been striking for 220 days, refusing to accept wage reductions, “flexible” work hours and demanding that their fired coworkers be hired back. The strike has won the support of trade unions and organizations from all over the world. It is one of the many struggles at the workplace that are currently taking place in Greece, such as the struggle of the employees at Phone Marketing, the construction workers building the Thessaloniki subway, the workers in the milk-, food- and drinks-industry.

It should be noted that the judicial system of clear can hardly be considered independent when it comes to labour disputes. In the last years, courts take almost unanimously the side of employers. The court order is the last chapter in a series of attempts   to  end the strike.  These attempts began with repeated announcements of lay-offs by the employer during the strike and continued by the ‘visit’ of members of the neonazi party Golden Dawn (Hrisi Avgi)  a few months ago. The latter was  in a clear attempt to defame the strike by giving them the stigma of the “friendship” with the neonazis. Actually, just a few days before the ‘visit’ this very same party  had already issued a statement in which it clearly showed its support to the plant owner. This statement made it completely clear whose interests the neonazis serve at the end of the day. As all these attempts failed, the judicial system was called in to do the dirty work by issuing this court order.

The continued effort of the plant owner to end the strike dissolves any myth of the company having “economic difficulties due to the crisis” that necessitated the slashing wages and personnel reduction. On the contrary, it vividly paints the agony of the owner  to start again the engines make profits start pouring in as soon as possible.

We acknowledge the struggle of the strikers as a just action which is important not only for the steelworkers in strike, but also for their fellow worker in other workplaces, the unemployed, the students, the pensioners and everyone that has to be sacrificed  so that the cogs keep spinning. We wish to again express our support to the strikers and our desire for this struggle to be victorious.

REinFORM

Follows the announcement of the steel workers.

Message of the strikers of Hellenic Steelworks SA

The Union of the workers of Steelworks SA denounces the order of the Single-Member court of the first instance to declare our 220-day heroic struggle as illegal. This strike has become a symbol for the working class of our country but also a symbol for the international working class. The court declared the strike illegal on the basis of the flimsy argument of the employer that the initial decision  for the strike on Oktober 31^st 2011 was taken without a ballot vote. We stress the fact that the court declared the strike al illegal because of the procedures that were followed without daring to question the legitimacy of the demands of the strike. Justice shows once more that it serves certain class interests. The court declared a just strike as  illegal while it justified the illegal practices of Manesis (cc the employer) and his plans for 180 layoffs.

Whoever considers that courts can terrorize us and stop our struggle makes a big mistake! The cannot stop the struggle of the heroic Steelworkers that has been justified not only by the working people in Greece but also by workers all around the world that have adopted it as their own struggle.

At this moment, we are even more decisive and united to continue our strike. After the last decision of our assembly, we have thrown in the garbage the very last argument of the employer. In the last assembly, using a ballot vote, 204 workers voted for the continuation of our struggle with the form of repeated 24hour strikes and 42 voted against. Now, their argument about an illegal strike does not hold anymore. What the employer claims in his announcement is invalid. It is just a lie that has the aim of terrorizing the workers. Manesis can no longer hide. He is obliged to begin the negotiations and to provide a solution for us.

We call our fellow-Steelworkers to stay close to the Union and to continue united our struggle. We have to defend our struggle from the attempts of the paid strike-breakers of the employer to set up provocations in collaboration with people from the Media in the coming days to defame our struggle..

We call the working class, the people and the youth to support decisively our struggle by strengthening their material and moral solidarity.

We call the first- and second- level unions as well as all organizations of the society to denounce the event (cc the declaration of the strike as illegal), to take action and to organize the struggle in every sector and every working place. In the difficult times we are going through, in the storms that are coming, there is no other solution but to become all Steelworkers.

The victory of the Steelworkers will be a victory of all workers.