Teachers are demanding a raise in their starting salary to 1,400 euros a month (1 euro = US$1.26) and increased funding for education to 5 percent of the gross national product. Currently elementary school teachers start out at 950 euros a month. One-third of teachers have to work a second job.

“We are fighting for an increase in education funding so the schools can properly operate,” stated Afroditi Brata, who teaches in the Korydallos area of Athens. “Things are going from bad to worse. We lack basic things in my school: computers, projectors, a library.”

—Natasha Terlexis  
 
Hotel workers in Los Angeles
march for union representation
LOS ANGELES—More than 2,000 hotel workers and their supporters marched down Century Boulevard outside the Los Angeles International Airport September 28. The action was called by UNITE HERE and immigrant rights organizations to support the fight of airport hotel workers to win union representation and to demand legalization for all immigrants. Marchers included workers from hotels throughout Los Angeles, students from nearby Loyola Marymount University, and day laborers. About 300 people were arrested in sit-down protests in front of the Westin and Hilton hotels, which have refused to sign initial contracts with UNITE HERE.

“We believe in the fight of the unions,” said day labor organizer Omar Leon. “When workers are fighting for a contract we don’t take those jobs.” Thelma Juarez came with co-workers from the Rennassiance hotel in Hollywood, where the contract expired a year ago. “We came to help the Hilton workers get a raise and benefits,” she said. They are also fighting at their workplace to lower the workload for housekeepers from 14 rooms a day to 11 and demanding a pay raise.

—Naomi Craine
 
 
Related articles:
15,000 strike at Goodyear plants in U.S. and Canada
Scotland garment workers strike for wage increase
Germany: phone workers protest plant closure  
 
 
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