Pan-Arkadian Trade Union of Builders: Everyone at the May 1st strike rally in Petrino Square

PAN-NARKADIAN ASSOCIATION OF MANUFACTURING BUILDERS

1^THE MAY STRIKE – STRIKE GATHERING TRIPOLI 10:30am PETRINO SQUARE

Fellow builders, construction workers and related professions,

The 1st of May it is the day of the workers of the whole world and as such it marks the ceaseless struggle of the workers for the rights of our class with the ultimate goal of abolishing the exploitation of man by man, for a world without exploitation, poverty, wars and refugees.

130 years since May Day in Athens and the claim of 8 hours, as a mature need then, we are faced with the anti-work Directives of the EU that all governments and the current one have turned into laws for its abolition, the establishment of 13 hours – 6-day and 7-day work, in order to hit the Collective Labor Contracts and to keep the minimum wage and wages at their lowest levels, at a time when punctuality and the cost of living have skyrocketed.

80 years since the execution of 200 communists in Kaisariani, among the 11 leaders of the building movement, this year’s May Day finds us facing an all-out attack by the EU, governments and capital, aiming to put obstacles in our struggles, to present us as a one-way street to this barbaric reality we live.

From Chicago, in 1886, to May Day in Athens, 1894, from May 1936 in Thessaloniki to the heroic sacrifice of 200 communists in Kaisariani and 40 fighters of the National Resistance in Tripoli, in 1944, from then until today, the working class shouts with its struggles that we do not compromise with injustice and exploitation, with wars for the interests of the few.

We continue the struggle on our own path that will make it possible for us workers to enjoy the wealth that comes from our work and our hands. This is our perspective. This is the only real path that benefits our needs and the needs of our families.

Colleagues,

The strike battles on February 28 and April 17, despite the obstacles of the leaderships of GSEE and ADEDY, PASKE, DAKE, SYRIZA/New Left, showed that we put our lives first and not the profits of the few. This is our answer:

• In imperialist wars and imperialist designs. In the involvement of our country in the “mouth of the wolf”, in Ukraine, in the support of the murderous state of Israel that slaughters the Palestinian people.
• No one, neither the government nor the Minister of Labor, is paying attention to workplace crimes, which since the beginning of the year have killed 32 workers, 12 of them in the construction industry.
• In the accuracy, revaluations and tax evasion, with our struggle we claim:

Measures to support our income, increases in wages and daily wages, signing of a new Branch Collective Labor Agreement. 7 hours – 35 hours – 5 days. Repeal anti-labor laws that crush the 8-hour shift, that criminalize strikes and union action.

Fellow builders, construction workers and related professions,

With a legacy of the strike battles we fought, we put all our strength into the FIRST STRIKE to give new impetus, new dynamics to our struggle. To strengthen the assertion so that we can have results that will relieve our lives.

Government, big business, the parties that support the anti-labour policy and the EU Directives that do not belong to the people, but to capital, must put this in their minds:

We don’t back down, we don’t compromise. We choose the strength of our struggle.

We choose what the historical legacy of the dead, the tortured, the imprisoned of our class teaches us about the rights of the worker. The History of our class, filled with blood, sacrifices and struggle, which educates us, inspires us for the struggles of today and heralds the great struggles of tomorrow, the great victories, the great History that the people will write

On the 1st of May, everyone is on strike

Everyone at the strike meeting of the Unions in Tripoli at 10.30 in the morning in the square. Petrinou