Greek police attacks shipyard workers

This video is about the Skaramagkas shipyards near Athens in Greece.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

Shipyard demo erupts as riot police called in

Thursday 04 October 2012

by Our Foreign Desk

Greek police clashed with scores of protesting shipyard staff members today after the furious workers forced their way into the grounds of Greece’s Defence Ministry in Athens.

More than 100 protesters forced open the entrance to the ministry complex, blocking the entrance to the general staff building.

Riot police were called in to force back the demonstrators, who were demanding meetings with ministry officials.

Workers from the Skaramagkas shipyards, which deals mainly with military contacts, said they have not been paid in months.

While the IMF-Merkel imposed “austerity” policies mean wage cuts of 20, 30, 40 etc. per cent for teachers and most other Greek workers, and, eg, shipyard workers seem to get no pay at all, “defence” is one of few posts where are no cuts; quite the contrary. Military expenditure increased 66,7%. Apparently, all this extra money goes to warship-building etc. fat cats, and not one euro cent to the workers.

Scuffles broke out as protesters attempted to push through the police cordon protecting the entrance to the main building.

Several dozen demonstrators were detained for questioning by police, prompting another protest outside police headquarters.

The coalition government is currently preparing a new austerity package which has been demanded by the troika of bail-out lenders.

Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras said on Wednesday that there were still considerable differences between the government and debt inspectors from the International Monetary Fund, European Commission and European Central Bank over the package.

A fresh dispute has emerged over benefits cuts and comes just days after inspectors rejected the offered mix of billions of euros of spending cuts and tax rises, demanding an increase in cuts of at least another €1bn (£800 million).

Government officials now say that the EU might hold an extraordinary summit in November to approve the €31bn (£25bn) aid instalment, most of which will go toward recapitalising the country’s banks.

Greece has enough cash reserves to last until the end of November.

But delaying the cash injection to the banks is starving the economy of much-needed liquidity.

Any delay also means the government won’t be able to start paying €7bn (£5.6bn) it owes to private-sector contractors.

Troika inspectors are now pushing for a fresh round of hugely unpopular labour reforms that had been earlier rejected by the government, telling Labour Minister Yannis Vroutsis to reduce compensation paid to sacked private-sector workers.

Other demands include dropping an automatic 9 per cent pay rise to employees after three years of employment and extending the working week from five days to six.

See also here.

Transport strikes in Portugal continued today and trade unions vowed to step up their fight against the government’s latest batch of austerity measures: here.