URGENT - Trade union leaders face 5 years in prison this Tuesday

international | worker & community struggles and protests | news report Saturday January 07, 2012 21:55 by Pól Ó Cionsalígh paulbkinsella at gmail dot com An Chúlóg, Báile Átha Cliath 17 0851478100

Got this from LabourStart yesterday. This is very disturbing and sinister, and it's not happening in some remote, tin-pot, 3rd World dictatorship!! This is happening in Europe! In Greece, a European Union (EU) Member. And what are the EU, who are so quick to blabber and bleat on about human right's abuses in Libya, Iran, Syria, and other places safely removed from Europe, doing and saying about this? Surprise! Surprise! Nothing, as it's the EU and their austerity policies that have led to this, and it wouldn't surprise me at all if the EU is orchestrating this behind the scenes as an attempt to smash Protests by the People and the Workers against their failed austerity policies.

More than a dozen Greek trade unionists face prison on Tuesday. 
 
If you're a trade unionist fighting to ensure that workers don't pay the price for the global financial crisis they didn't create, 2012 looks like it will be a challenging year.

On Thursday 24 November 2011, the Greek police arrested Nikos Photopoulos, President of the power workers' union GENOP/DEI, along with more than a dozen of his fellow trade unionists. They will appear in court on Tuesday 10 January 2012 to face charges that could see them jailed for up to five years.

They were protesting against part of the Greek austerity measures - the cutting off of power to people unable to pay a new property tax, levied regardless of income or wealth and added to all electricity bills.  The new tax is just the most recent 'austerity' action by the Greek government.  The abolition of the national minimum wage and the lowering of employer-paid taxes are next.

Please take a moment to send a message to the Greek Prime Minister in support of the campaign Greek trade union confederation GSEE, which is calling for the charges to be dropped.

Twitter: @PaulKinsella1