Greek workers protest low wages, high housing prices with general strike

Due to the economic crisis that devastated Greece from 2009 to 2018, many Greeks suffered cuts in their salaries and pensions, in exchange for a financial rescue of 280,000 million euros. The crisis decimated a quarter of Greece’s economic outputand almost resulted in the country leaving the Eurozone, as reported by Reuters.

“Prices and rents have increased significantly, while wages are at a very low point,” reads a strike poster from the GSEEthe largest private union in Greece. This union represents more than 2.5 million workers in the country, and has asked the government for action against oligopolies, whom they blame for the general rise in basic products.

The date of the strike is no coincidence, since the Greek government will announce to parliament this Wednesday its final budget by 2025, to be put to a vote next month. The draft contemplates economic growth of 23% next year, and older tax benefits thanks to the expansion of digital payments and the boom in property sales.

Among the measures that the Greek people demand from their rulers, the unions demand the adoption of collective labor agreementsyes. They ask that these involve effective and real coverage of the rights and needs of workers, especially those belonging to the manufacturing sector. services and the trade.

Housing, out of control

At the same time, in Greece there is major concern about housing prices. The October data on housing prices in Greece are worrying: the price per square meter of apartments is 2,895 euros per square meter, and 2,717 euros in houses. In January 2021, prices were 1,877 euros per square meter for apartments, and 1,781 euros for houses, according to data from Properstar.

As for rents, the figures are equally alarming. In 2021, the square meter of rent for an apartment stood at 9 euros. Currently, it amounts to 14. As for houses, it has remained more stable, since in 2021 a square meter cost 11 euros to rent, and currently it is 11.

As can be seen from the data, housing prices in Greece have become tremendously expensive in the last four years. On September 9 of this same year, the prime minister Mitsotakis announced measures against tourist overcrowding of the country’s most popular islands and the capital, Athens. Among them was a plan to transform the toshort term rentals in three-year rentals through tax incentives to owners, and restrict by law the possibility of using rental apartments for tourist use.

Greece is one of the most visited countries in the world, and is on track to break the record for 36 million visitors established in 2023. For reference, it is a country with 11 million inhabitants, so the situation is three tourists for every Greek citizen. However, housing is only one of the causes that have motivated the general strike in the Greek country. Unlike prices, which in recent years have skyrocketed without control, wages they remain fixed.

Insufficient wages

During the toughest years of the Greek crisis, which devastatingly affected the country from 2010 to 2018, salaries not only did not rise, but were cut up to 40%. The unions’ demands are clear: they ask for the reintroduction of the two extraordinary summer and Christmas payments, eliminated during the economic crisis. Likewise, they demand more funds for the national health systemas well as the hiring of personnel to cover the “thousands of gaps” in health, education and social security.

Last Monday, Mitsotakis admitted that “there are room for improvement« in relation to salaries and GDP per capita, and reiterated its call for help from the European Union to correct the discrepancies in relation to electricity prices. The ruler admitted that the Greeks pay a lot more than citizens of other countries in the European bloc.

With the country firmly recovering from the crisis since 2018, the prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakishas increased the gross minimum wage four times since coming to power in 2019. Currently, it is in 830 euros monthlybut the executive has promised to raise it again, this time to 950 euros in 2027. However, the people consider that these measures are insufficient, since they cannot afford to pay for energy, food and housing prices.

The data on the purchasing power of the Greeks are devastating. The country is located penultimatesurpassing only Bulgaria, in the European Union ranking that measures the purchasing power of citizens. At the beginning of the economic crisis, in 2010, the average annual salary of a Greek worker was in 24,156 euros. Almost 15 years later, the average salary in 2024 is 23,536 euros per year, observing a drop of 620 euros, as can be seen from Expansión data.

Regarding employment data, currently the 9.3% of the Greek population is unemployed. If we look at the data for those under 25 years of age, the figure is 16.3% of unemployed. The figures are lower than those of Spain, closer to the Euro Zone average, but equally worrying for the country’s economy.