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Vol. 77/No. 9      March 11, 2013

 
On the Picket Line
 
Public workers in Malawi strike, win wage increase
More than 100,000 public workers in the southeast African country of Malawi ended their two-week strike Feb. 21. They won a wage raise for the lowest paid workers of 61 percent and 5 percent for those with the highest pay. On Feb. 20, workers shut down the country’s two international airports.

“Workers were demanding wage raises because a 50 percent devaluation” of Malawi’s currency, the kwacha, last year “and a 30 percent inflation rate had cut into workers’ income,” Pontius Elijah Kalichero, general secretary of the Civil Service Trade Union, told the Militant in a phone interview Feb. 25 from Lilongwe, the capital.

Teachers joined the walkout and all government offices were closed in the country, he said.

“The government refused to put an offer on the table before the strike and refused to discuss the issues,” said Kalichero. “That’s why we had to go on strike.”

Hundreds of students in Lilongwe and Blantyre took to the streets in support of the workers Feb. 21, hours before the strike settlement was announced. “Cops used tear gas at the main offices of Capitol Hill and at colleges against students,” Kalichero said.

—Brian Williams


Greece: After 9-month strike, steelworkers continue fight
ATHENS, Greece—Several workers, veterans of the nine-month strike at the Elliniki Halivourgia steel plant that ended in July last year, continue their struggle and fight alongside other workers in the industrial area of Thriasio near Athens.

The steelworkers were fighting cuts in their wages and hours and for reinstatement of 126 coworkers fired during the strike.

Upon returning to work Feb. 12 following a three-month furlough, workers were informed by bosses at Elliniki Halivourgia that a two-month “job-sharing” scheme was being imposed.

“On my first day back to work,” said Nikos Gkiolis, “some people were saying we need to help the company ‘get on its feet,’ I answer, when did the boss ever help you get on your feet? What about all your unpaid bills, the tax office running after you, the needs of your children?”

“In the steel mills, shipyards, refineries and paint factories, the Thriasio workers have come under a concerted attack by the bosses,” said Panagiotis Katsaros, a steelworker and former strike leader. “The situation is pushing workers to see that, no matter how hard, we also must coordinate our struggles to win.”

“While we were on strike last year, bosses at the Halivourgiki steel mill next door assured workers they need not fear job or wage cuts,” said Katsaros. But last week the company laid off 170, slashed wages by 20 percent and switched to 12-hour shifts. “Some workers from there have now contacted our union,” Katsaros said.

At the Elefsina shipyards workers have not been paid for a year, receiving only a small sum each month in back wages.

Tasos Konstantinidis, one of the fired strikers at Elliniki Halivourgia, has participated in solidarity actions at the shipyard since workers there struck Jan. 22. “If we had gotten real solidarity from the metal manufacturing and steel plants in our region, the outcome of our struggle would have been different,” he said. “There is a lot of bitterness about this, but now that others are on strike, it’s our duty to support them.”
 
 
Related articles:
After strike, school bus workers in New York City fight firings
 
 
 
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