"Some Greeks Might Have to Pay for Their Jobs"

[RedZero]

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2012/02/some-greeks-might-have-pay-their-jobs/49023/

It's being called the "negative salary": Due to austerity measures in Greece, it's being reported that up to 64,000 Greeks will go without pay this month, and some will have to pay for having a job. Numbers in austerity reports have usually reflected figures in the millions (http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/greeces-austerity-measures-15764075#.T0UBWXKXRH0), since they reflect industry-wide cuts (i.e. a 537-million euro cut to health and pension funds (http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/greeces-austerity-measures-15764075#.T0UBWXKXRH0)). And plans of cutting minimum wage by up to 32% is all but a given in the country (http://www.euractiv.com/euro-finance/greek-bailout-gambles-mass-privatisations-wage-cuts-news-511017). Today's "negative salary" deal—which could have government employees returning funds— reveals the real human impact of the austerity measures.

As Zero Hedge (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/its-official-greece-unveils-negative-salary) and the Press Project report (http://www.thepressproject.gr/listen.php?id=13457&date=2012-02-22):

Salary cutbacks (called "unified payroll") for contract workers at the public sector set to be finalized today. Cuts to be valid retroactively since november 2011. Expected result: Up to 64.000 people will work without salary this month, or even be asked to return money. Amongst them 21.000 teachers, 13.000 municipal employees and 30.000 civil servants.

[GoddessCleoLover]

This would be a perfect time to call for a general strike of indefinite length, to occupy as many institutions of the bourgeois state as possible, and to generally challenge the hegemony of the Greek ruling class.

[Lenina Rosenweg]

Not to discount the incredible pain and destruction currently being inflicted on Greece by finance capital, the system of requiring people to work for free is very common in the US. Its called an "internship". While it may sound crass to compare Greece and the US in this regard, there is massive exploitation of young people by "non-profits", NGOs and for- profit consulting firms such as Stratfor, of people in their 20s desperate to perform months or years of unpaid labor in hopes that it may, someday,if one is lucky in making connections, lead to paid employment.

[GoddessCleoLover]

As an American for all 54 years of my life, I can state with moral certainty that American-style savage capitalism provides the worst sort of precedent for any European country. Lenina Rosenweg as usual raises a highly interesting point, to wit is the current wave of austerity in Europe going to lead Europe down the road toward American-style savage capitalism? The whole "internship" scam about which she has posted is typical of the very worst type of super-exploitation as practiced by the extremely rapacious American bourgeoisie.

[dodger]

It used to be said that anything that happened in America would be repeated in Britain in 5/10yrs. Well that timelapse has got shorter. Indeed Britain has often led the way down the path of reaction, a trojan horse in Europe. I should like to see the Greeks leave the EU renege on debts. Still that is their business. General Strike? Heaven knows where that might lead, Gramsci. Of course I am miles away, never been a fan of them myself, but still, let's see what they come up with. It must surely be time to assert democracy, unite everyone and his dog, seize back sovereignty. Go from there. Rebuild industry stop assets leaving the country. Madam Merkel is that cursed woman to be the next president of Greece?

[bricolage]

It's not the same to compare internships to this. It is true that there is a whole mass of unpaid interns (actually often negatively paid, for example you have to pay something like 20 grand to get an internship at vogue) however the social class from which they come and which they occupy is different to that of teachers and civil servants in Greece. The fact that you have to do a large amount of interning in the hope of getting nice upper middle class jobs and that you need a pre-existing amount of disposable income to support yourself while you are doing this means that interns overwhelming come from higher income stratas of society and of the middle classes. Now obviously this has an effect of those from lower income families who want to get those jobs as they are unable to do the unpaid work, additionally it is criminal the amount of free labour companies get and the eradication of internships (that primarily, lets be honest here, serve to undercut any kind of minimum wage agreements) should be a class demand. However the fact that interns come much more from better off backgrounds and that they enter into the agreement with a prior knowledge that they won't get means it's very different to people who are already working as teachers or civil servants who are then told, years later, they have to start losing salaries, or even paying them back.