His commitments for the support of the employees of fixed orbit vehicles were formulated by Alexis Tsipras during the meeting he had with the trade union organizations of the area, at the offices of STASY, the first stop of his today’s tour in Piraeus, one of the three regions where he will be a candidate.

The president of SYRIZA-PS committed to support the workers, to the constant communication with the unions “to do everything we can to satisfy your requests”, to upgrade labor relations with the repeal of the Hatzidakis law, to strengthen the payroll “and to recruit where there is a need, but we with ASEP, because we don’t have the perception that the state is a small business”. Because, he added, “10 days ago and despite the tragic accident in Tempe, we had recruitments outside ASEP, the daughter of a trade unionist of a certain faction. This offends the trade union movement and the political system.”

Initially, Mr. Tsipras explained that for the first time he chose to be a candidate in Piraeus, commenting that although he is a member of Panathinaikos, for him, apart from the teams, the red color is also intertwined with labor struggles, struggles for justice, but it is also the color of the SYRIZA flag. He added that Piraeus is a place intertwined with the struggles of the workers, the working class, the middle class, the extroverted small and medium entrepreneurship, “with the miracle of shipping, for which some gave the steel to the carnations and machine shops, the workers”. He stood in his symbolic presence to choose as the first stop of his visit to Piraeus, his meeting with the workers in such a union. He referred to the tragic accident in Tempe “which highlighted some things that we must not forget, not only out of moral debt towards our 57 fellow human beings who lost their lives unjustly but also to the hundreds of workers whose lives are at risk every day when they work in conditions without basic safety standards . He emphasized that “it was the workers who had repeatedly warned – and that is why what happened has the character of a crime – and extrajudicially that this accident would happen”.

He noted that his message is how “we will do everything in our power together with the workers to ensure quality, safe, cheap and accessible public transport”. He pointed out in particular that among the 11 articles of the “Contract of Change” is the one that concerns the need to travel on urban public transport, the unlimited travel card from 28 euros to 10, pointing out that this is very critical for the average citizen who it is strained “and it will work positively on the family budget.” Along with this, he stressed the need for a comprehensive policy that would strengthen public transport, ensure working conditions and safety standards for workers.

In particular, he said that the issue of working regularity is a commitment of SYRIZA. “The repeal of the Hatzidakis law does not cost the public, but it costs some employers”he said, commenting that “these days some people are making fake quotes and overpricing our program”. “How much is it costing workers to work unpaid overtime, not having an 8 hour standard?”, commented. He noted that the benefit for the workers will be great if they have SEPE by their side, committing in addition to the return of collective negotiations, collective agreements, to increase the minimum wage to 880 euros plus the annual indexation adjustment, “but this will be the basis on which the negotiation of the social partners will exist from now on”.

In addition, he emphasized that beyond its re-establishment 13th edition “which was abolished by the ND government” and in addition to the return of retroactive payments, SYRIZA is also committed to the recalculation of pensioners with a personal difference “so that they too have the possibility of at least this percentage of the increases that may the budget can withstand and is provided for by our own law of ’18”. He commented that the SYRIZA government was in cahoots with the troika “over our heads” and despite her pressures “we kept the pensions and every Christmas what was left our first concern was the pensioners and then we introduced the 13th pension”. He accused the ND of abolishing it and that the pensioners, including retroactive payments, were deprived of 7 billion in these four years.

Another commitment he addressed concerns the utilization of ISAP’s important property in the public interest and not its assignment to private individuals, for which he accused the government. He said that “we want to bring back the plan we had as a government and implement it: modernizing and upgrading the repair base alongside the supply of new rolling stock and strengthening the potential by hiring new staff.” At the same time, he said that SYRIZA wants to revive the agreement it had launched to build the so-called Hippodamia market at the green bus station “which will be an oasis for the region, for the local community”. He also mentioned the SYRIZA plan to underground the section from Faliro to Piraeus.

Earlier, Mr. Tsipras had been informed by the president of STASY employees, the president of the train drivers’ federation of OSE, the president of the union of conductors and other traffic workers of STASY and the president of the pensioners of ISAP about their problems and demands.