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Athens News Agency: News in English, 05-11-12
CONTENTS
[01] Workers' rally calls for better job market
[01] Workers' rally calls for better job market
Thousands of workers and students rallied in central Athens on
Saturday, urging the government to create a better labour market.
Joining the call to action by the Workers Front for Struggle,
protesters asked for full employment and steady jobs, a seven-hour
working day and five-day working week, a minimum monthly wage of 1,300
euros, and unemployment benefit at 80% of minimum salaries.
Other demands were a retirement age of 55 for women and 60 for men,
abolition of health contributions, abolition of private education, and
a social insurance system run solely by the state.
A member of the protest group's executive, George Mavrikos, charged
that workers were coming under attack from the government's economic
policy, which had brought joblessness, mass redundancies, austerity,
poverty and privatisation.
Also responsible for social and economic ills was a European Union
strategy that favoured a wealthy elite and oppressed workers, Mavrikos
added.
Demonstrators handed a list of their demands to parliament.
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