ATHENS: Rail services will be halted and ships will remain docked at ports near the capital Athens on Wednesday as workers walk off the job to mark the anniversary of the country’s deadliest train crash. A passenger train from Athens to the northern city of Thessaloniki collided head-on with a freight train on February 28, 2023, killing 57 people and sparking mass protests against what many saw as the result of decades of neglect by the rail sector.
Protesters ranging from railway workers and civil servants to sailors and school teachers will join a 24-hour strike by ADEDY, Greece’s largest public sector union, which represents around half a million workers. “After a year, we are back in the streets to shout out loud that we will not forget,” ADEDY said in a statement. “We will continue to fight to hold those responsible accountable.” The station foreman was arrested hours after the accident and a Greek judge is investigating the case.
The trial is likely to begin in June, the government said. But many survivors and relatives of the victims say politicians, who are protected from prosecution under Greek law, should also take responsibility for failings in the security system. Workers are also criticizing what they say is an insufficient pay rise, the first in fourteen years in the public sector. It says the increase was not enough to offset the impact of the rising cost of living. Instead, workers want a 10% across-the-board increase and more hiring.
Greece is recovering from a 10-year debt crisis and three international bailouts, which in turn received wage cuts and the abolition of holiday bonuses in the public sector. The conservative government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has raised the minimum monthly wage by 20% to 780 euros since taking office in 2019 and has promised to raise it further to 950 euros by 2027. However, monthly salaries in Greece still lag behind the European Union average.
