The employees of Greece’s state-controlled power utility PPC have announced that they will proceed with rolling strikes starting from Wednesday, July 2 in response of the Greek government’s controversial privatisation plans.
Stamatis Relias, the head of PPC’s biggest trade union GENOP-DEH, reported that the union is planning to launch 48-hour rolling strikes starting on Wednesday, as parliament is expected to begin debating a draft law allowing the government to privatize PPC in 2015, as part of Greece’s bailout.
“We believe power is a public commodity which should remain under the state’s control,” he said. Electricity workers have threatened to disrupt power supply across the country in the middle of the summer tourist season.
The government’s spokeswoman, Sofia Voultepsi, reported on Tuesday that unionists don’t own PPC and they have no right to proceed with power blackouts which she described as a sabotage against the Greek state. “You can’t have 20 million tourists in the country and deprive them of air-conditioning,”said Voultepsi adding that “unions will not take the country hostage.”
The spokeswoman claimed that the money generated from PPC’s privatization will be used by the corporation for its modernization and developement in Southeastern Europe.
According to the vice president of GENOP-DEH, the unionists will meet on Wednesday morning with the Metropolitan of Arta to hand him a letter with their demands. In the evening they will hold a rally in the town of Amyntaio in northern Greece which will be attended by the opposition party leader, Alexis Tsipras.
On Thursday at 7:00 pm a rally will be held outside the headquarters of PPC in Chalkokondyli street, in Athens.
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