[The following article is included in the 1st issue of the "Labour Case"
information sheet]---- Focus is one of the most populous industries inGreece, employing hundreds of thousands of workers and holding a
significant weight for the Greek capitalist economy, as an accumulation
businesses of all kinds (from small "family" businesses and neighborhood
shops to large catering chains). Those of us who work or have worked in
the past in this vast field of focus are an important part of the
working class in the Greek space. Many young men and women look for and
find in the catering industry their first job, usually in conjunction
with their studies, for many it is also a temporary choice of necessity
that usually conflicts with the professional training they have worked
hard to acquire in some other industry or the profession they would like
to do, for others it is their permanent stable employment, while we
cannot overlook the multinational composition of the working class
within the focus, with many economic immigrants and refugees to work in
it. The "work force" in the catering industry grows during the summer
months, the months of the so-called "season", due to the "steam engine"
of the Greek economy, tourism, the development of which is celebrated
every year by government officials and shopkeepers. A growth and
monstrous profits for the bosses who "come out" on the sweat, the
running, the standing, the 12-hour and 16-hour days of many of us who
every time come back crippled from the Greek islands.
So for all of us, who work or have worked permanently or occasionally in
catering, waiters, cooks, deliverymen, waiters, bartenders, baristas,
etc., there is a common lived experience which can be summed up very
understandable, we think, for all of us in the following phrase: in the
"rot of focus". This rot is embodied both in the focus's "unwritten
laws" regarding working conditions (salary, insurance, hours, payment of
gifts, leaves), as well as in the daily conditions of intensification
and difficult working conditions in every post of this industry.
So what are these "unwritten laws" of focus? The normality for the
workers in this sector for the most part includes: crumb wages
calculated per hour based on an individual agreement with the respective
boss or manager, half marks or "black", fluid hours - "accordion"
usually defined according to the needs of the business, no need for
Easter, Christmas gifts, leave allowances and the increments to which we
are entitled for overtime, night shifts and for Sunday work. In a few
words, work regularity is composed of conditions that encroach on basic
guaranteed (on paper) rights of workers, that do not offer any security
(but you sign, but you work, but you get money and tokens, with all that
this may entail) and they are the perfect ground for the creation of
"rubber" workers in a context of "quick sand" precarity. That is,
"flexibility" and "adaptability" based on the needs of the business.
However, our own basic needs that "run" daily are not "flexible" but
objective and the reality of the stress of our living is not at all
"adaptive" but crude and cynical.
The worst thing about this condition is that its normalization in most
of the industry gives the bosses the right to apply it with great ease
on the workers, pressing blackmail (in theory or in practice) on our
need for work, our anxiety to find a job and our fear of losing our job.
In short, they step on everyone, to perpetuate a condition that concerns
and affects us all. They step on, in the void that exists for collective
assertion, imposing on us (because "there will always be the next one
who can take the position", and "everywhere you will meet the same"...)
working conditions according to their own interests that level each of
us individually and at the same time all of us.
Let's also talk about the immediate daily adverse working conditions
which are formed and intensified for the worse due to what we mentioned
above. Overwork is a very common reality in the focus with 6- and even
7-day work, 12-hour shifts and grueling evening shifts. Intensification
is also everywhere as due to the direct customer service you are at all
times to be criticized and evaluated for the result you produce.
standing and stretching from running up and down and at the same time
they must be in a good mood and serve with a smile as if they are in
Lilliput, the workers in the kitchen are burning themselves, standing
for hours, over grills, pans and fryers, the delivery drivers are
exposed daily to the weather conditions (the cold, the rains, the heat)
and are faced with the immediate danger of being maimed, with
work-related "accidents" and "accidents" all too common in their
profession, the clothiers who are often the most "invisible" part of the
staff in a shop grind, and when everyone else has gone, pans and floors
to be all in the pen and they literally get 3.60. Many more could be
added to the list of difficulties experienced daily by every worker at
every post in the restaurant.
What we consider very important is to perceive in every workplace, as
well as in the focus, the daily exploitation and oppression that we
exist as workers as a common case, a condition that we all experience
together due to our position in the work pyramid. It is most convenient
for the bosses to be divided and competitive with each other because
that way we are vulnerable and they can impose on each of us the working
conditions that are in their interest and not in our interest. That is
why bosses often applaud the behaviors of employees who act
competitively and undermine their colleagues, "giving" them for their
every mistake, sharing responsibility for everything that can go wrong,
acting as "minions" and defending the "good of the enterprise". The
creation of an "arena" climate in our workplace with employees as
competing elements is a condition that undoubtedly benefits the bosses
and in many cases is reinforced by them as well. From our point of view,
and I believe that this is true for the majority of employees, we know
how important is the labor solidarity between us, mutual coverage and
comradely bonds over the daily difficulties we face together in our
work. The existence of all these is a first step initially to "fight"
and a second to be united in every injustice and to be able to claim
collectively for all of us.
A decisive step to lay the foundations for the creation of a class
movement of catering workers that will be able to claim and achieve
better working conditions and terms is to "overcome" the "loneliness" we
feel every time we want to ask for very basic things so that we don't
work without rights, as helots (whether it concerns our wages, whether
it concerns our insurance, whether it concerns our hours, or "gifts" and
increments, or our working conditions in general).
The only way to "overcome" this is the collective way, that of
collective assertion, joint assertion and organization of workers in
every workplace and in our industry as a whole in dynamic class-based
grassroots unions. For example, let's ask ourselves whether the
"solution" to coping with our ever-increasing cost of living is to work
12- and 14-hour days, or to demand an increase in wages for all of us
while reducing working hours according to our needs. . Let's ask
ourselves what is more effective, to overzealous our work to "earn" any
50 minute increase in our hourly wages that may never come or to demand
together with our colleagues a raise for all of us or even better to
organize in militant grassroots unions that will demand wage increases
and form a network of struggle to achieve this across a range of
businesses? What is more beneficial for us, to take for granted that
full insurance, gifts and allowances are a midsummer night's dream in
catering and treat them as "Chinese", or to collectively fight for their
universal implementation? If we sit down and calculate the "black" money
they offer us as "better" without the application of all that we are
entitled to and the total income we could have by paying them we will
see that the scale tilts towards the latter. Many times bosses also prey
on our ignorance or inexperience, especially when we're looking for one
of our first focus jobs. That is why it is important to know beforehand
what we are entitled to (e.g. night increments, leaves, gifts, etc.).
The above are just a few examples that prove the value and our interest
to organize and fight as a class. This is not an unrealistic goal. It
is, in fact, unrealistic to work 12-hour days and not get paid for the
month, while every labor conquest is catalyzed by plunging us into an
even more uncertain future. And at the moment there are ongoing
competitions concerning the catering sector such as that of the
deliverymen who have gained ground with continuous strikes, while in the
past through their struggles they have won important conquests. And to
close, as we began: we must remember that we are not alone but there are
MANY and MANY experiencing the same crap in focus. And we must remember
that if we put down the trays, pans, pots, cash registers and
motorbikes, the bosses won't make a single euro. On our own labor they
get rich. And for the bosses to understand this better, a good
opportunity is the upcoming November 20th strike.
https://protaanka.espivblogs.net/2024/11/18/stin-monaxia-tis-estiasis-na-vroyme-tin-syllogikotita/
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