July 7, 2010
Kathimerini continues hammering Greek unions
My understanding about the Greek unions is that they more or less operate in the way American lobbying groups and associations do: pressure the controlling governmental body for both favors and for protection against competition. When centralized governments hold such massive power to make or break businesses and industries with legislation, those groups have no choice but to fight for influence. In Greece, unions actually go well beyond influence in a number of areas, and can act with some limited impunity to damage the country in their efforts to exact the maximum amount of concessions and control over decisions affecting them. Hence the uproar in Greek unions over the financial plan from the IMF/eurozone which will diminish this power and will ultimately grow the central governments options at truly running the country.
Kathimerini has been consistently striking out at the unions of Greece that have been disrupting the country during the economic crisis, labeling them just about everything negative in the political and social lexicon without going as far as calling them "traitors." But they're not afraid to call them 'blackmailers':
"The Communist Party’s PAME labor movement has chosen well in making Piraeus the setting for its battle of wills with the government.
Greece’s myriad hydra-headed interest groups have always conducted asymmetric warfare against the government and state, trying to cause the most possible damage to the greatest possible number of people so as to extract maximum gains for themselves. Farmers block highways and close borders, harming the interests and trade of both Greece and its neighbors whenever they have a complaint or a new demand. Seamen usually strike during Easter or Christmas, preventing people from getting to their islands for the holidays, while garbage collectors choose the same period to walk off the job, condemning Athenians to weeks of scurrying between the decomposing mountains of their excesses. Even the smallest group will take to the streets of central Athens – blocking traffic for hours and preventing access to shops – to press for its own esoteric demands. This institutionalized and widely tolerated selfishness has been the mark of our democracy since the collapse of the junta in 1974.
If Greece were a living being, Piraeus would be its throat – the small part through which all the vital elements pass and where they are most vulnerable."
Greece's Golden Visa program
