admin
mobilisation to force the Athens metro staff to return to work, but the move was immmediately criticised by a leftist party that is part of the ruling coalition.
“Civil mobilisation is an extreme option and our party does not agree with it,” the Democratic Left party said in a statement.
But Development Minister Costis Hatzidakis told reporters after briefing Prime Minister Antonis Samaras: “The unionists chose the road of blind confrontation.
“The government cannot show apathy. We can do nothing else, but proceed with the measure of civil mobilisation,” Hatzidakis said.
Metro strikers reacted by barricading themselves inside the network’s headquarters near Athens. Other unions from the public bus and train networks have pledged their support.
The largest Greek union GSEE also gave its backing to the strikers.
“A civil mobilisation means dictatorship. Let them come and take us,” Antonis Stamatopoulos, head of the main metro union Selma, told reporters.
Metro staff oppose government plans to reduce their pay and equate it with the broader public sector, part of reforms tied to the country’s massive EU-IMF loan bailout.
The development minister said strikers had shown “contempt” for court rulings that had declared the metro strike illegal earlier this week.
“Society cannot be held hostage,” Hatzidakis said. — AFP.
Online Reporter