[olympiaworkers] Greece: Pakistani workers go on strike after police raid

Libcom.org Sep 14 2010

Today, hundreds of Pakistani migrants living and working in Skala, Laconia
took the decision to go on strike after a police attack that was unleashed
against them earlier.

After returning from their work in collecting oranges, they found the
doors of their homes and shelters closed by the owners and their employers
and their belongings on the street.

According to a common announcement of Migrant Workers Union, the Movement
Working Together Against Racism and the Fascist Threat and the Pakistani
Community of Greece, at least 500 Pakistani immigrants have nowhere to
stay.

The police pogrom against Pakistani immigrants began immediately after the
intervention of the prosecutor, which led to the arrest of an
accommodation owner in Skala and then his sentence to 58 years in prison
for the inhuman conditions in which he hosted large numbers of immigrants.

Police initially made around 60 arrests of immigrants going from house to
house, and then released them after they gave them "notes on
administrative deportation". At the same time, police created a climate of
terror to the house owners/employers, sparking the mass expulsion of
immigrants from the homes they lived.

The workers, immediately after these facts, gathered in the Square St.
Friday where they held an assembly and decided to go on strike to demand
their rights. Specifically they demand the ending of the Pakistani
immigrants workers pogrom by ensuring human housing, providing decent
wages and they requested the government to legalize the immigrants and
give asylum to refugees, something that Labour Centre of Athens has also
requested.

The Migrant Workers Union supports the decision of Pakistani immigrants to
go on strike protesting against the pogroms that now unleashed against
them and called the GSEE (General Confederation of Workers) and the Labour
Centres to actively support the strike and the fair demands of immigrant
workers.

Source http://en.contrainfo.espiv.net/2010/09/13/pakistani-workers-on-strike/