Seamen’s Strike on Monday 31 May

A huge success that signals the escalation of the struggle against the ship owners and their supporters

The efforts to intimidate and slander the strikers of PAME met the response of people’s solidarity
The yesterday’s 24-hour nationwide seamen’s strike in all categories of ships constitutes a huge step forward in the escalation of the struggle of the seamen and all the working people against the general attack on people’s rights. It was a battle marked by the wide-scale people’s solidarity, which raised a shield against the efforts and the maneuvers of the ship-owners, the government, and the big businesses in the tourist sector to intimidate the strikers.

Since 6 o’ clock the seamen were on the ship ramps determined to defend their rights; to repulse the assault on their social security gains; not to allow the ships to be transformed into “floating ghettos” of unregistered employment, governed by the rule of slavers, as the ship-owners, the government and the EU seek, through the deregulation of the sea transport promoted initially in cruise ships and thereafter in all types of ships. At the same time, they demanded the signing of collective labor agreements that meet their increased needs.

The ship owners were trying all day long to break the strike using as a vehicle the passengers of two ships who were waiting to get on board. They forced them to roam for hours, trapped into coaches. Only after the intervention of the class oriented trade unions of the lower engine crews and merchant marine engineers (PEMEN and STEFENSON) that join PAME, were the shipping companies forced to provide them hotel accommodation. It is worth mentioning that when the Chinese tourists realized what was going on, they wrote on a long white ban: «LOUIS CRUISES: They knew about the strike, they didn΄t nothing. They left us sleeping on the street».

A small group of big merchants from Athens and Piraeus also tried to break the strike and turn the tourists against the strikers. Nevertheless, their efforts fell flat and met the respponse of the owners of small businesses who came to the port in order to express their solidarity in practice. The class oriented forces of PAME organise new demonstrations on Tuesday June 1st against the anti-people offensive and the slaughter in the open sea of Gaza by the israeli army.

01.06.2010