Greece: The "Black Bible of Employers during the Pandemic" presented by PAME

In a press conference held on Thursday 2 April in Athens, the All-Workers Militant Front (PAME) presented numerous cases of anti-worker policies and tactics implemented by big businesses during the last weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic in Greece.

Nikos Papageorgiou, member of the PAME Secretariat, pointed out that there is “an unprecedented attack by the big employers who are utilizing all the measures taken by the government”, adding that “with most businesses closed, the government has issued Decree Laws including provisions that abolish labour rights, cut in half the already miserable wages, empower employers with the right to pay us whenever they want, to employ us whenever, wherever and however they want.” 

Workers storm, interrupt event of the reformist Greek General Confederation of Labour (GSEE)

Under the slogan "Unions of workers, not employers", workers stormed and interrupted a "fiesta"-event organized by Greece's General Confederation of Labour (GSEE) which was taking place at the Kalamata Dance Hall, on Thursday evening. The GSEE event was due to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Confederation.

As 902.gr portal reported, the workers and trade unionists, holding banners and shouting slogans, entered the hall where the event was taking place. They lamented the reformist leadership of the GSEE, shouting slogans such as "Class based Trade Unions, without employers", "Trade Union leaders strike-breakers, the workers have turned their backs at you".

Greece: Armed bodyguards and terrorism deployed by employers at workers' congress

On Saturday, February 23, was to take place the Congress of the National Federation of Private Employees of Greece (OIYE) in Athens.

A Congress about which there were hundreds of official complaints and unions’ denunciations about election fraud, intimidations and direct intervention of employers, especially by the big Super Market owners, so as them to control the Federation. In addition the President of the Federation, Mr. Karageorgopoulos, is himself an employer, President and CEO of the limited company “PEGASUS FORTUNA GAMING S.A”.

Italy: USB Trade Union denounces French multinational retailer Leroy Merlin

LEROY MERLIN, A MULTINATIONAL FOUNDED ON EXPLOITATION

The large French multinational Leroy Merlin, with its own shops and facilities all over the world, uses the “caporalato” for the recruitment of employees in the warehouse of the logistic pole of Castel San Giovanni in the province of Piacenza.

The 420 workers are not directly employed by the multinational corporations, but through a system of “coop-eratives” operating as real intermediaries of job and which are enriched by subtracting wages and rights from “their” workers.

The E.U. “is pregnant” with barbarity

PAME: The European Union "is pregnant" with barbarity.

The barbarous anti-workers face of the European Union, of its laws and regulations, has been revealed once again, through the latest decision of the European Court of Justice that legalizes all dismissals, even those of pregnant women.

The European Court of Justice (CJEU), in one of its recent decisions concerning the layoff of a pregnant worker of the Spanish firm “Bankia” in 2013, which took place under the status of mass layoffs, decided that her dismissal was “legal”, despite her pregnancy. 

The KKE denounces EU court's ruling which "legalizes" dismissal of pregnant women workers

The road for businesses to ‘legally” fire even pregnant women workers has been opened by the unacceptable decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) that was taken on the 22nd of February, reaffirming the repulsive aspect of the EU's anti-labor policy and the extreme hypocrisy of the predatory alliance which presents itself as a supposed protector of social rights, motherhood and the most "vulnerable" members of society.

In response to a query from a Spanish court, the CJEU considers "legal" the firing of a pregnant woman in a Spanish company in 2013, as part of the mass firings carried out by the employers. At the same time, with the outrageous reasoning that dismissal of a pregnant worker is permissible as long as the stated reason for her dismissal is not the her pregnancy itself, the CJEU paves the way for a generalized launching of firings of pregnant women which is already being pushed through by large companies.

Against Black Friday: Amazon workers in Germany and Italy are going on strike

More than 500 Amazon employees in Europe will go on strike on Black Friday in a bid to win higher pay from the retailer, according to trade unions.

Large numbers of employees in Germany and Italy will stay home for one of the busiest shopping days of the year in a bid to win concessions from their employer.

Workers at Amazon's main Italian distribution hub posted a statement saying that they would walk out after attempts to secure bonuses from management broke down.