Athens Hotel Staff In New Olympic Strike Threat

ATHENS, July 29 (AFP) - A hotel staff trade union in the Athens area on Thursday renewed a call for strikes to coincide with the summer Olympic Games in the city, aimed at winning an increase in "humiliating" wage levels.
The Hotel Employees Association for Greater Athens (SYXEAP), which is already calling for a one-day strike just a week before the Games open, hinted that it could call further stoppages during the event if its demands were not met.
"We do not want to affect the success of the Games," said union leader Nikos Papageorgiou, speaking at a press conference on the planned one-day strike on August 4.
"But if our demands are not met we will probably push ahead with our protests, which are aimed in particular at winning an increase in our humiliating wages."
The Games open on August 13, a week after the already-scheduled strike, and run to August 29. Athens region hotels will be working flat out during the period, and any strike could seriously affect the running of the Games.
"Our struggle will continue during and after the Games," said the head of the union, Christos Katsotis.
"We cannot live on starvation wages, which amount to 350 euros at most," he added.
"We want Olympic Games for the workers, and not for the big sponsors such as Coca-Cola or construction companies and hotel owners," he said.
The union organised two 24-hour strikes on June 17 and July 7, as well as a series of stoppages at the end of May to call for substantial wage hikes.
Hotel owners claim that those strikes were not widely observed and that hotels managed to continue running without any difficulties.
The union is demanding the signing of collective bargaining agreements guaranteeing a minimum basic salary of 1,100 euros (1,300 dollars) a month. It says many of its members currently earn much less than half that amount.
It is also pressing for more stable conditions for hotel workers, who are often taken on on a seasonal basis and do not have social benefits.
SYXEAP has refused to accept a proposal, reached through arbitration, for a six-percent wage increase.