B. CONTEMPORARY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE STRUCTURE OF THE GREEK ECONOMY AND THE NECESSITY FOR RAPID ADAPTATIONS IN THE STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION OF THE TRADE UNION MOVEMENT

Branch-based organisation of occupations

In the economy as whole, salaried employees are 2.922.114 and the economically active population 4.531.914. A steady increase in salaried work has been recorded.

The branches of Commerce, Construction, Transportation, Energy, and Finance record an increase in employment, while there is a tendency towards shrinkage in Manufacturing and an even greater reduction in Agriculture – Livestock Farming. The trend represented by salaried labour is basically the same in those branches, with the exception of the agricultural sector.

An important increase is presented by the branch of scientific technical activities (i.e. law and accounting firms, technical studies offices, companies/institutes doing applied research) that provide independent administrative and directive services in different branches of industry and commerce. Today this branch concentrates an important number of university graduates that work for low salaries, in executive roles with flexible forms of labour and intensive mobility.

Based on today’s statistics for employment distribution the most mass branches are those of Commerce, Manufacturing (as a whole), Construction, Education, Tourism, Scientific Services, and Health-Welfare.

In decline are the branches of Manufacturing, the Garment and Textile Industry, Clothing, Leather, Wood industries. In contrast note the dynamic rise in the Food and Beverage Industry, Pharmaceuticals, Oil Refineries.

These specific developments have an effect on the lack of homogeny at the heart of the working class.

An important difference in the average yearly income between branches in the higher zone (Refineries, Electrical Energy, Sea Transport) and the lower zone (Retail Commerce, Construction, Waste Management, Clothing-Leather).

In addition, an important difference has been recorded in officially reported lower and higher monthly salaries in Electrical Energy, in Tourism and in branches of Manufacturing

On the organisation of forces and a plan of action

The prioritising of the organisation of forces must correspond to the criteria of the greatest concentration of the working class (as much in branches as in large companies – monopoly groups in the strategically important sectors of economic activity, in dynamic branches with rapid development, as well as in branches that have weak development and where a rapid sharpening of the class struggle is predicted. We must also take into account labour relations and the conditions that exist in each branch.

Planning must be focused at the branch level, utilising as much as possible the territorial-geographical aspects (i.e. industrial zones where many branches co-exist) and the company-based (i.e. a high concentration of the working class in large production units, commercial chains.)

In combination with the above, at the same time we must undertake a study of the situation in the trade unions by branch so based on this we can determine the necessary changes and adaptations in trade union organisation and structure and party building with greater accuracy.

In addition, we must plan Party building and organisation of forces much better based on the companies that exist by branch.

It is a duty of the Party to make a study of the composition of the working class in Greece and to systematically monitor the changes that are taking place.