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In a letter addressed to the heads of the EU Commission, Euro Group, the ECB and IMF, UNI Europa demands their urgent intervention to ensure that the Troika stops its interference with trade union rights, in particular on collective bargaining. The Troika’s demands breach key principles of the EU Treaty: respect for the autonomy of the social partners (Art. 152) and the fact that the EU has explicitly no competence over pay (Art. 153.5).



The Troika is an expert group of the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund. Its function is to assess and set out requirements for the Greek economic reform programme which form the basis for granting financial support to Greece.



UNI Europa took up the cause of Greek bank workers already a year ago when the Troika put forward a demand reflecting the position of the employers in the then on-going collective bargaining round for the banking sector – to reduce the salary of ordinary bank employees by 3.4%.



Looking at the new demands, the only conclusion is that nothing has changed, indeed the Troika has become even more radical in disregarding the rights guaranteed by the EU Treaty and the Greek constitution.



This approach by EU, ECB and IMF to force legislation upon the Greek democracy to reduce the pay of bank employees and cut jobs is a prime example on how tackling the financial crisis has become a full-blown attack on ordinary workers, their rights, jobs, wages and livelihood.



The right way forward is ensuring financial and economic stability by moving towards a Social Europe. The approach taken to address the economic difficulties in Greece is instead based on more of the same neoliberal policies that caused the financial crisis, enrich the few and impoverish ordinary citizens.



UNI Europa stands and fights for a social, democratic and pro-European character of the European Union. The EU institutions must embrace these principles again – in Greece and towards solving the crisis generally.