In announcing a 24-hour strike in the Salamis ship repair area for today, Thursday, July 25, the Attica Metalworkers and Shipbuilding Industry Union of Greece and the Carpenters and Shipbuilders Union proceeded, after the new industrial accident which cost the life of one worker and the injury of another.
A 63-year-old man was fatally injured, a 22-year-old man was injured and another worker suffered heart problems while working on the E/GO/G catapult of a high-speed ship.
In a statement, the two unions expressed their condolences to the family of the deceased machinist Vassilis Gavalas, stressing that “today’s workplace crime is almost a copy of the previous fatal one we had four months ago, again due to the fall of a catapult ship from the same company, resulting in the loss of our colleague Kostas Michelis”.
As the statement highlights, “This is the third colleague in the last year alone who has not returned from work so that the shipowners’ ships can quickly get back on track and not lose a single euro of the billions they earn. So that not a single euro is lost from the pockets of the contractors who accumulate to catch up on the infamous repair times”, it highlights, adding that in this calculation “we do not count the dead colleagues who are exhausted from working non-stop for months, in hot conditions, who lose their lives due to heart disease and so many other things, deaths that are never measured”.
They then point out: “The Ministries of Labor and Merchant Navy and the government as a whole apparently decided to break all records of dead workers, for the profit of the bosses.
Despite the dozens of complaints made by our unions on the ground about the situation prevailing in the shipbuilding and repair area, they play the role of “duck” so as not to disturb the real bosses, the shipowners.
Once again, they stained their hands with blood without worrying about the consequences, even going so far as to make statements such as that made by the current Minister of the Commercial Navy, who said that “No discounts or compromises are permitted for anyone in terms of the safety of all those who work in the shipping sector”.
Ship repairers, through our unions, have decided that we will not rest until our demands are met, for increased controls, for the punishment of those responsible, for the creation of infrastructures that provide us with safety and hygiene in our work.”
The two Unions demand that those truly responsible pay now and request that the following be implemented immediately:
- Stepping up checks now. Checks should be carried out 7 days a week and outside of public office hours.
- Five-member committees also in large shipyards
- Security technicians from port authority lists.
- SSE obligation, as well as the provisions it includes for protective measures.
- Immediate reopening of the Perama Health Center and Fire Department.