Everyone at the General Assembly of our Union, on Monday 19 February at 16.00 at the Wyndham Hotel

EVERYONE ON THE 24 HOUR STRIKE ON FEBRUARY 28

Everyone at the General Assembly of our Union, on Monday 19 February at 16.00 at the Wyndham Hotel  (M. Alexandrou 2, Metaxourgeio)

Colleagues,

We have to participate massively and with determination in this strike! These collective processes form the foundation for organizing our protests. 

This much-vaunted model of tourism, the one that constantly generates unfathomable profits for the industry’s business groups, hotels, catering chains and food stores, is being built on our expense ,with the constant shrinking of our wages and rights, with the worsening of working conditions, with the expansion of flexible forms of work, with the hostage of all kinds of contracts, with the expansion of the work for contractors , with the arbitrariness of all employers and the antilabor laws that , all governments until today, have delivered into the hands of the capital. 

We are sick of hearing the well-known big lie «Sit back…let the business profit so we all win». Their coffers are full and our pockets are empty, we struggle   in the middle of every month, and while they are hoarding , our wages are the same since  2011. We’ve had enough of «that’s the way things are and it’s impossible to change them», they are just trying to extract our consent for our own exploitation. 

The time to fight for our rights is now!  Nobody alone – Nobody scared – nobody uninvolved! 

It was our protests and mobilizations that managed to achieve positive things that were included in the sectoral collective labor agreements οf hotel employees. As long as we compromise and adopt the mindset of the «lesser evil», as the majority of the Federation does, we will lose our rights one by one and our lives will get worse. 

After all, it was under the pressure of our Union and other branch unions throughout the country, that the collective labor contract was signed in catering, for the collective regulation of our rights in an industry that numbers tens of thousands of workers. A contract that lags far behind our current needs and that provides work six days a week , satisfying the demands of employers. 

The provision for additional pay by 20% when the work exceeds 48 hours per week, means accepting to work 7 days a week. It leads to the exhaustion of the workers and to labor crimes, which employers and governments call accidents. It means the acceptance of the labor jungle with the signature of the majority of the Federation. How many hours, how many days in a row can a cook, a waiter, a delivery person work…? How many more colleagues will we mourn, how many more will be crippled at the altar of their profitability…? 

We are focusing our forces on the signing of new, better Collective Contracts, both in the hotel and in the catering industry,  as well as a local collective contract for hotel workers in Attica, which will be  the safety net of our own needs and will not contain the unfavorable conditions that are added each time so business profitability is better served. 

This is what development is for them!  

Even now, in the period of this incredible profitability of the capital,  they are constantly stripping us of our rights! 

Our Union came out of the recent election battle much stronger  and we will deposit all of this power in full, to tear down in practice all the anti-labor laws of the current government, which continues the work of the last one, gifting weapons to the capital so it can crush our lives. 

Colleague, 

Your relationship with your employer is not equal… take the step and join our union to restore the balance! 

Don’t fall into the traps they set with the appeal of the «good employer».    The limit of every employer’s benevolence is his rate of profit, and he will do everything to increase it, by increasing exploitation and limiting reactions. 

Us workers have inexhaustible powers and we can, with unity and solidarity, organize the fight against the policy that destroys our life. 

• Steady work 8 hours – 5 days – 40 hours per week for the whole industry  
• Substantial salary increases 
• Consecutive rest days and No arrangement of  working hours  
• Definition of duties for each specialty and Minimum staff composition  
• Maximum room cleaning limit for maids 
• Put an end to the hostage-taking of fixed-term contracts, the modern slave trade of contract labor and the exploitation of apprenticeships 
• Reintegration of all specialties in hazardous occupation, distributors included and Lower retirement age limits  
• Reinstatement of the One-off payment on 20th year 
• Health and safety measures in the workplace. 

Everyone at the General Assembly of our Union, on Monday 19 February at 16:00, at the Wyndham Hotel ( M.Alexandrou 2, Metaxourgeio)