Solidarity with the Workers of the Banquet Restaurant in Thessaloniki
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We denounce the systematic repression by the police against the workers of the Banquet restaurant in Thessaloniki and the militants of the Solidarity Committee.
For the last three months, the Banquet workers along with the Solidarity Committee have carried out a hard struggle with protests, demonstrations and blockades demanding:
- the re-hiring of fired fellow workers,
- the payment of owed wages,
- the observance of the labour legislation, which the employers systematically encroach (they do not pay for overtime work, night work and holidays).
The employers have had members of the Solidarity Committee beaten and, using the method of lock-out, have tried to financially ruin the workers. Recently, they have attempted to reopen the restaurant after firing more workers and manufacturing lies and slanderous persecutions, with the help of police.
On Tuesday, August 31, the colleague G. K., a worker of the restaurant, was arrested and only after the protest of hundreds of other workers and the setting of a day in court was he set free. On Thursday, September 2, another worker and member of the Solidarity Committee, Vasilis Goutas, was also arrested, while the police were trying to arrest several more solidarity workers.
The government is responsible for this anti-worker repression by the police which aims to crush the just struggle of the workers and of all the people supporting them, extinguish a nucleus of resistance in Thessaloniki, intimidate the workers so that they do not protest massively at the International Commercial Exposition of Thessaloniki.
In order to implement its policy and the ‘‘new Memorandum’’ it has agreed on with the Troika [Greek government, EU and IMF], the government is trying to abolish democratic, political and trade union liberties. The tens of thousands people who are going to demonstrate at the International Exposition will not do them the favour!
We demand:
- All the charges to be immediately withdrawn – all the arrested to be released
- All the fired to be re-hired and all the owed wages to be paid
Please send the following solidarity mail to the responsible minister:
The mail address is pressoffice@yptp.gr, with a copy to the Solidarity Committee: epitrophallhleguhs@yahoo.gr
Solidarity with the Banquet Workers!
To Minister Chrysochoidis
Dear Sir,
We have been informed by the ‘”Banquet Workers’ Solidarity Committee’” and the media that during the last days a pogrom of complaints, arrests and lay-offs has been taking place in the city of Thessaloniki against the workers of the Banquet restaurant and the militants of the “Solidarity Committee”.
We believe that these are actions which brutally violate democratic, political and trade-union rights – rights established for decades in the European Union – as well as the Constitution of the country. We demand the immediate stop of the persecutions against the workers of the Banquet restaurant and the militants of the ‘Solidarity Committee’, the re-hiring of all the fired workers of the restaurant, as well as the payment of their accrued wages and the thorough implementation of labour legislation for everyone.
Sincerely
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