Athens Cat Street Murder（G The Strange Wave of Strikes in Athens）

 

Chapter Three Flying Misfortune

 

G

The Strange Wave of Strikes in Athens

 

         Don Jerry didn't seem interested in the murder. The first topic I talked about after meeting him was traffic. He cursed the safety of air traffic in the United States. Today's Americans travel by plane. In addition to going through cumbersome inspections, they also have to worry about sudden attacks by hijackers after boarding the plane. He had a scare on his flight to Greece this time.

         I understand his complaints. Since the 9.11 incident, world terrorism has not been eradicated. Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda has issued warnings of terrorist attacks through the Internet time and time again, and there have been incidents of international hostages being taken and killed in Iraq. The war against Iraq by the United States and Britain has not only failed to curb the occurrence of terrorist incidents, on the contrary, the task of counter-terrorism is even more difficult.

        Tang Jerry told me that when he got off the plane, he heard that the air traffic control industry in Athens was on strike, and when he got out of the airport, he encountered a strike in the transportation industry. After inquiring, the police, fire, public sector, hospitals and ambulance services in Athens were all on strike. What happened to Athens? I wanted to buy a newspaper at the airport, what happened? Was told that the newspaper had not been published for two days. Inquire again, and even television and electronic media went on strike at the same time. A security guard at the airport told me that the industrial strike in Athens was not aimed at boycotting the Olympic Games, but only for one purpose - to raise wages for the Olympic Games. The Athens Journalists' Strike was initiated by the Athens Federation of Journalists to demand a new collective labor contract. Simply put, it is to ask the labor department to increase the salary of journalists in Athens by 8%. However, the labor department is only willing to increase by 5%.

         Hearing Don Jerry's complaints, I laughed: "Don Jerry, did you know that the hotel staff you booked are also on strike. The hotel staff in the greater Athens area, including Athens and Piraeus The trade union has 11,500 members. The union demands that the government increase the minimum income of hotel workers from 487 euros to 1,100 euros, and asks them to be given additional allowances during the Athens Olympic Games. Hotel workers simply went on strike for 24 hours yesterday."

         Don Jerry seemed very interested in the information I provided. I just showed him some of my newspaper clippings. I told him that according to reports, celebrities and dignitaries from all over the world who went to Athens to watch the Olympic Games will stay in the 40 most expensive hotels in Athens. If these hotel employees really quit during the Olympic Games, more than 800 hotels in Athens will undoubtedly fall into chaos. But Don Jerry, you don't have to worry. I have researched and the hotel industry in Athens is still slightly different from other industries because the hotel industry unions have to negotiate with the private hotel owners instead of the government. Although more than 200 hotel employees went on strike yesterday, the business of the hotels in Athens has not been greatly affected. The main reason is that the current occupancy rate of the hotels is not high, and the main members participating in the strike are only some union leaders.