Strike law voted through


The Greek parliament has approved a massive new Bill introducing a series of changes required under the country’s financial bailout. 


One of these covers strikes, increasing the threshold of support necessary for a strike to be lawful from the current one-third of union members (lower in some cases) to 50% plus one. 


The vote on 12 January, delayed from December (see Labour Research, January 2018, page 8), led to strikes. But the Bill was passed by the parliament by 154 votes to 141. 


Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras rejected the view that the law banned the right to strike which, he said, “is not under threat from this government”.