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UNI criticizes IMF negative reaction to EU-Greece agreement

UNI Global Union says the IMF is out of tune with its negative attitude to the agreement made between the Greek government and Eurozone finance ministers.

UNI Europa Regional Secretary Oliver Roethig said, “Greece has suffered five years of austerity imposed externally by the Troika. The IMF’s Christine Lagarde has badly misjudged the mood both in Greece and the rest of Europe by condemning the agreement. Logic demands that the new Greek government be given an opportunity to get Greece’s economy back on its feet and the Greek people back into work.”

UNI’s General Secretary, Philip Jennings said, “This is more of the same from the poisoned prong of the Troika.  We call on the IMF to change tack, support the agreement and encourage Europe to pursue a new economic path.”

The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has been equally strong its condemnation of the IMF’s stance on Greece, calling it a recipe for inequality.

The ITUC also warned that the IMF’s condemning of the Greece-Eurozone accord could open the way for right-wing and anti-EU political groupings to try to block the accord in some national parliaments that must ratify it. 

The ITUC’s General Secretary said, “The IMF is playing a dangerous political game by pandering to political forces that are more interested in making ideological points, even at the cost of setting off a new Eurozone crisis, than in helping an EU member country that has lost 26 per cent of its GDP since 2008 get onto the path to economic recovery.”