Greece stopped by 24-hour general strike over cost of living – DW – 11/20/2024
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Greece ground to a halt as a general strike stopped trains, ships and other transport around the country. Unions have called for the government to raise wages and do more to combat high inflation.

Summary

A 24-hour general strike in Greece on Wednesday shut down transport, schools, and government offices as workers protested high living costs.

Unions are demanding a 10% pay raise and the return of holiday bonuses cut during Greece’s financial crisis.

They accuse Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis of not doing enough to tackle inflation, despite recent minimum wage increases.

Hospitals operated on emergency staff, while protests and marches were planned.

Many say wages have not kept up with the rising costs of energy, food, and rent.

  • cazssiew@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    1 day ago

    Disregarding clinicallydepressedpoochie’s weird blend of a hero complex and defeatist puritanism, the concept of one big union organizing strikes across trades and states, while never really successful, did play a significant part in galvanizing workers and popularizing unions. Even in smaller countries where general strikes are more common, they remain isolated events, but they do a lot to promote the potential unions have in giving workers a voice, and grow unions’ ranks by increasing enrollment.

    • JigglySackles@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      1 day ago

      Thanks for a level headed comment and that link. I’ll read it more in depth later. I’m all for unions, I wish my particular sector of industry had more unions because we get fucked pretty hard. I’d be interested in joining if there was one for what I did. Convincing others might be difficult though because many don’t see our treatment as poor for some reason. (Contast overtime, on-call, and burnout levels of work are standard practice)

      • cazssiew@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        5 hours ago

        There’s good reason for that, outside of a few industries, American unions were pretty comprehensively dismantled by the likes of Reagan. We’re resilient creatures, we’ll tolerate a lot before burning out, but people will also demand better conditions if they’re shown they can have a say. We just don’t have many contemporary examples of workers wielding that kind of power in the states. The guilds in the movie industry are a steadfast counterexample, though, and united auto workers have been showing some muscle recently. There’s no denying it’s a really tough battle, but people will fight back if they’re given some hope.