Protesting against the abolition of collective labour agreements, the violation of
labour and pension rights, and layoffs of unprecedented proportions, Greece's journalists and media workers took part in a 24-hour nationwide general strike, bringing news coverage to a halt.
En masse the journalists' unions, along with other unions representing media workers under the auspices of
the Panhellenic Federation of Journalists Unions (POESY), demanded the signing of collective
agreements in both private and public media, the safeguarding of jobs and the
maintenance of quality journalism.
"The course of labour matters for journalists in Greece is a source of
grave concern for all European journalists" said the President of the EFJ Arne König during a European meeting on authors' rights held in Thessaloniki last
weekend.
"We are deeply concerned over the coordinated effort by publishers to
deregulate labour relations, without regard to the consequences on the quality
of journalism. The strike mobilisations that are to be held by the Greek journalists
in the upcoming week are significant to all of us. When our Greek colleagues
are defending their right to collective bargaining they are sending a clear
message to the publishers: they can't deal with shrinking profits by laying off
journalists; they'd only be weakening their most valued product, which is
information".
The Journalists' Union of
Macedonia and Thrace Daily Newspapers (ESIEMTH) stresses that the seemingly
endless stream of job redundancies that have taken place in Northern Greece in
the recent weeks constitute an assault against
the public good known as information.
This warning strike, held by both the print and broadcast media, will end on Thursday 16 December at 6 am and will be followed by a 48-hour strike on Friday and
Saturday, 17-18 December.
Messages
of support can be sent to [email protected] and [email protected]