Strike called over Greek TV closure
Greek unions held a 24-hour strike on Thursday to protest against the
sudden closure of state broadcaster and staff redundancies as part of a
cost-cutting exercise.
"We wanted to show our solidarity to the state TV workers and protest
against these unacceptable public sector reforms that the lenders have
demanded," the general secretary of public sector union ADEDY, Ilias
Iliopoulos told the Reuters news agency last week.
An official from private sector union GSEE, the country's largest,
said its members joined the strike. TV and radio stations run by the
Hellenic Broadcasting Corp (ERT) were gradually pulled off the air,
hours after the government said it would temporarily close all state-run
broadcasts and lay off about 2,500 workers.
The actions were apparently taken on Tuesday as part of a
cost-cutting drive demanded by the country's international creditors.
The conservative-led government said earlier that ERT would reopen
"as soon as possible" with a new, smaller workforce. It was not
immediately clear how long that would take, and whether all stations
would reopen.
Shortly after the unexpected announcement, thousands of people
rallied at the headquarters of ERT, in a northern Athens suburb, to show
their support. A spokesman for the government and a former state TV
journalist, Simos Kedikoglou, described ERT as a "haven of waste".
"ERT is a typical example of unique lack of transparency and
incredible waste. And that ends today," Kedikoglou said.
"It costs three to seven times as much as other TV stations and four
to six times the personnel for a small viewership, about half that of an
average private station."
During the day, ERT employees who had gathered outside its
headquarters pledged to fight the decision and called for a general
media blackout in protest.
It was the first case of mass public sector layoffs in the country,
which has pledged to cut 15,000 state jobs by 2015 as part of its
bailout commitments. Nearly one million jobs in the private sector have
already been cut. Greece's POESY media union accused the government of
sacrificing the broadcaster to appease its creditors. "Bailout creditors
are demanding civil service layoffs and the government, to meet its
obligations toward foreign monitors, is prepared to sacrifice the public
broadcasting corporation," a union statement said.
Unions representing ERT workers at three terrestrial TV stations, one
satellite station and its national and regional radio network said they
would keep the stations on the air. Greece has depended on rescue loans
from its European partners and the International Monetary Fund since May
2010.
In exchange, it imposed deeply resented income cuts and tax
increases, which has exacerbated a recession and forced tens of
thousands of businesses to close, sending unemployment to a record of 27
percent.
Aljazeera |