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Greek teachers have joined other public sector workers from all over the country to take part in strike action this week to protest against radical cuts that have been proposed by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund and implemented by the Greek government.

The Greek Primary Teachers’ Federation (DOE) and the Greek Federation of Secondary State School Teachers (OLME) plan further strike action on 19 October.

During the last year more than twelve strikes, both in the public and the private sector, and several large demonstrations – often overshadowed by police violence – have taken place in Greece to protest against draconian measures by the government which desperate sought to find a way out of the debt crisis.

OLME General Secretary, Themis Kotsifakis, said: “We demand the end of policies that aim to cut salaries and pensions by 25 per cent and which try to reduce the education budget (estimated at only 2.69 per cent of the GDP for 2011). These steps are effectively destroying the welfare state. It's not the employees, much less the teachers, that caused this public debt, yet it is them who have to bear the burden of austerity.”

Leaders of EI’s European region, the European Trade Union Confederation for Education (ETUCE) Committee, assembled in Brussels for its annual meeting. It voiced its concern about the on-going effort by the Greek government to make workers pay for the wrongdoings of bankers.

“This is an issue that affects all workers in Greece, but teachers especially are on the frontline, as the government tries to make them carry spending cuts on their backs. That is not the way forward! Social protection and social dialogue involving unions are crucial to turning the Greek economy around and to tackling the fiscal situation,” said ETUCE Regional Director, Martin Rømer.