[The following article is included in the 2nd issue of the newsletter
"Labor Affairs"]---- And this holiday season, the streets of the city
are filled with lights, the squares with Christmas trees and of course
every kind of retail store follows the "kitsch" model sparkle' of the
holidays, beckoning us in to shop. It is the period of "consumption"
that all kinds of shopkeepers are waiting for to increase their
turnover. Posters for 'deals', adverts for every kind of Christmas gift,
hyperbole of shopping streets and shops in the news bulletins make up
the 'Christmas' scene which becomes more and more intense as we get
deeper into the festive season. The capitalist market will move and
everyone is happy! Or maybe not?
Behind the "glittering" atmosphere of the Christmas decoration, some
will take all the work out on the shelves and product windows, on top of
the cash registers, in the warehouses packing and carrying, to take at
the end of the day 3 ,60 and leave "corpses" from their jobs every day.
In the majority of them, these workers, commercial employees, like the
majority of the working class in the time we live in, will either be
satisfied with the absolute necessities (or not even with them) for the
holidays or will find themselves at their "limits" for any festive
"irregularity". And the capitalist economy will continue its
uninterrupted operation... We will work either in the sphere of
production or in the sphere of the circulation of all goods, so that
others can get rich from our work and we will have only minimal access
to the social wealth produced by us .
Let's look a little more specifically at the working conditions of
commercial employees, i.e. an important part of the domestic working
class who work in the tertiary sector in retail businesses (clothing,
electrical and electronic appliance stores, bookstores, supermarkets,
etc.). Let's also see how their working conditions become difficult
during the festive season. To begin with, commercial employees are
confronted, like the entire working class, with the anti-labor bills
that have been passed by all governments over the years and aim with
increasing intensity, among other things, to strike the 8-hour, 5-day
work. Thus, according to the letter of the law, they work 10 and 12
hours without overtime pay, while 6-day work is also common in the
industry, as well as the partial abolition of the Sunday holiday, with
some Sundays of the year allowing the operation of retail stores. Of
course, there are also companies in the sector that promote "flexible"
working relationships with "split" schedules during peak hours. In terms
of industry wages and labor rights, the majority of workers are paid the
basic wage, while collective bargaining agreements are absent, resulting
in uncertainty and employer arbitrariness defining labor relations.
All kinds of ways that the bosses find with the kind collaboration of
the state to benefit as much as possible during the Christmas holiday
period, obviously make the working conditions of commercial employees
even more difficult. In addition to the existing intensification of work
due to increased demand, trade workers also have to deal with the
overflow of their hours and workload, with extended holiday hours into
the evening, capital holidays such as Black Friday, various "colorful
nights" organized more and more often by the Municipalities with the
operation of shops until very late at night, as well as the leveling of
Sunday Holiday. Characteristic examples are the "red night" organized by
the municipality of Glyfada and the "Golden Night" organized by the
municipality of Ilioupoli on 21/12 with the shops being open until
midnight and 01:00 in the evening respectively. It is also
characteristic of the exhaustion they experience during the festive
period that, combined with the festive overflowing hours, they have been
called and will be called to work 4 Sundays in December when the shops
will be open.
We must also make a special mention of the thousands of employees in the
supermarkets. While the owners of the large supermarket chains that are
effectively an oligopoly have seen their profits skyrocket over the past
few years, benefiting from inflation and the resulting precision that is
crushing the working class and the poor, we have not seen as is natural,
the slightest improvement for the benefit of their employees. Rather
the opposite! The tragic death of a worker inside the warehouses of
Sclavenitis in Kamatero due to the suffocating heat atmosphere that
prevailed is still recent, as the Sclavenitis of billions in profits did
not give one for the installation and operation of air conditioning in
the warehouses. Similar, tragic events also occurred in other
supermarkets during the summer season (e.g. fainting of a worker in
Masoutis due to heatstroke), as well as over time we observe a series of
labor "accidents" and "accidents" mainly in the field of unloading and
transporting goods in supermarkets . Let's not forget the not-so-distant
period of lockdowns when supermarket chain stores (e.g. Sclavenitis)
despite the diagnosed cases of workers continued to operate against
health protocols, resulting in the spread of the coronavirus which led
to cases and the death of workers that they got sick. And all this for
the perpetuation and increase of the profits of a few capitalists, while
the vast majority of workers are also paid the minimum wage in supermarkets.
Trade workers constitute an important part of the working class in
Greece, an important part that is particularly degraded both in terms of
wages and in terms of the general exploitation they suffer, as we
described above. An important stake in improving working conditions in
the industry as much as possible is the organization and struggle of the
workers themselves, in an industry largely fragmented into small shops
or branches of large chains. What is necessary, therefore, is the
class-union organization at the sectoral level, in a militant and
undefended grassroots union (which at the moment does not exist) away
from party patronages that lead workers' struggles to inherent limits
decided by a small bureaucratic leadership within to the union and they
go as far as party integration by the Communist Party in the case of the
branch we are referring to. We want unions that will be in the hands of
the workers themselves, with equality in the making and execution of
decisions, with active collective bodies, with mass participation and a
horizon of radical class struggles by us for us and against every
exploiter and ruler who wants either the alternation of bourgeois rule
or the blood-stained proletarian "workers" state. In the same direction,
the existence and creation of business unions in the sector, where this
is possible, is important, for the greater penetration of the struggle
and the organization of workers in each workplace based on the special
daily problems and needs they have.
https://protaanka.espivblogs.net/2025/01/07/o-golgothas-ton-emporoypallilon-tin-eortastiki-periodo/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
"Labor Affairs"]---- And this holiday season, the streets of the city
are filled with lights, the squares with Christmas trees and of course
every kind of retail store follows the "kitsch" model sparkle' of the
holidays, beckoning us in to shop. It is the period of "consumption"
that all kinds of shopkeepers are waiting for to increase their
turnover. Posters for 'deals', adverts for every kind of Christmas gift,
hyperbole of shopping streets and shops in the news bulletins make up
the 'Christmas' scene which becomes more and more intense as we get
deeper into the festive season. The capitalist market will move and
everyone is happy! Or maybe not?
Behind the "glittering" atmosphere of the Christmas decoration, some
will take all the work out on the shelves and product windows, on top of
the cash registers, in the warehouses packing and carrying, to take at
the end of the day 3 ,60 and leave "corpses" from their jobs every day.
In the majority of them, these workers, commercial employees, like the
majority of the working class in the time we live in, will either be
satisfied with the absolute necessities (or not even with them) for the
holidays or will find themselves at their "limits" for any festive
"irregularity". And the capitalist economy will continue its
uninterrupted operation... We will work either in the sphere of
production or in the sphere of the circulation of all goods, so that
others can get rich from our work and we will have only minimal access
to the social wealth produced by us .
Let's look a little more specifically at the working conditions of
commercial employees, i.e. an important part of the domestic working
class who work in the tertiary sector in retail businesses (clothing,
electrical and electronic appliance stores, bookstores, supermarkets,
etc.). Let's also see how their working conditions become difficult
during the festive season. To begin with, commercial employees are
confronted, like the entire working class, with the anti-labor bills
that have been passed by all governments over the years and aim with
increasing intensity, among other things, to strike the 8-hour, 5-day
work. Thus, according to the letter of the law, they work 10 and 12
hours without overtime pay, while 6-day work is also common in the
industry, as well as the partial abolition of the Sunday holiday, with
some Sundays of the year allowing the operation of retail stores. Of
course, there are also companies in the sector that promote "flexible"
working relationships with "split" schedules during peak hours. In terms
of industry wages and labor rights, the majority of workers are paid the
basic wage, while collective bargaining agreements are absent, resulting
in uncertainty and employer arbitrariness defining labor relations.
All kinds of ways that the bosses find with the kind collaboration of
the state to benefit as much as possible during the Christmas holiday
period, obviously make the working conditions of commercial employees
even more difficult. In addition to the existing intensification of work
due to increased demand, trade workers also have to deal with the
overflow of their hours and workload, with extended holiday hours into
the evening, capital holidays such as Black Friday, various "colorful
nights" organized more and more often by the Municipalities with the
operation of shops until very late at night, as well as the leveling of
Sunday Holiday. Characteristic examples are the "red night" organized by
the municipality of Glyfada and the "Golden Night" organized by the
municipality of Ilioupoli on 21/12 with the shops being open until
midnight and 01:00 in the evening respectively. It is also
characteristic of the exhaustion they experience during the festive
period that, combined with the festive overflowing hours, they have been
called and will be called to work 4 Sundays in December when the shops
will be open.
We must also make a special mention of the thousands of employees in the
supermarkets. While the owners of the large supermarket chains that are
effectively an oligopoly have seen their profits skyrocket over the past
few years, benefiting from inflation and the resulting precision that is
crushing the working class and the poor, we have not seen as is natural,
the slightest improvement for the benefit of their employees. Rather
the opposite! The tragic death of a worker inside the warehouses of
Sclavenitis in Kamatero due to the suffocating heat atmosphere that
prevailed is still recent, as the Sclavenitis of billions in profits did
not give one for the installation and operation of air conditioning in
the warehouses. Similar, tragic events also occurred in other
supermarkets during the summer season (e.g. fainting of a worker in
Masoutis due to heatstroke), as well as over time we observe a series of
labor "accidents" and "accidents" mainly in the field of unloading and
transporting goods in supermarkets . Let's not forget the not-so-distant
period of lockdowns when supermarket chain stores (e.g. Sclavenitis)
despite the diagnosed cases of workers continued to operate against
health protocols, resulting in the spread of the coronavirus which led
to cases and the death of workers that they got sick. And all this for
the perpetuation and increase of the profits of a few capitalists, while
the vast majority of workers are also paid the minimum wage in supermarkets.
Trade workers constitute an important part of the working class in
Greece, an important part that is particularly degraded both in terms of
wages and in terms of the general exploitation they suffer, as we
described above. An important stake in improving working conditions in
the industry as much as possible is the organization and struggle of the
workers themselves, in an industry largely fragmented into small shops
or branches of large chains. What is necessary, therefore, is the
class-union organization at the sectoral level, in a militant and
undefended grassroots union (which at the moment does not exist) away
from party patronages that lead workers' struggles to inherent limits
decided by a small bureaucratic leadership within to the union and they
go as far as party integration by the Communist Party in the case of the
branch we are referring to. We want unions that will be in the hands of
the workers themselves, with equality in the making and execution of
decisions, with active collective bodies, with mass participation and a
horizon of radical class struggles by us for us and against every
exploiter and ruler who wants either the alternation of bourgeois rule
or the blood-stained proletarian "workers" state. In the same direction,
the existence and creation of business unions in the sector, where this
is possible, is important, for the greater penetration of the struggle
and the organization of workers in each workplace based on the special
daily problems and needs they have.
https://protaanka.espivblogs.net/2025/01/07/o-golgothas-ton-emporoypallilon-tin-eortastiki-periodo/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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