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In June 2001, the Greek government and trade unions are in dispute over the former's proposals for reform of the social security system. The unions organised well-supported one-day national general strikes on 26 April and 17 May, and continue to reject the social dialogue on the issue offered by the government.
On 26 April 2001, the Greek General Confederation of Labour (GSEE) and the Confederation of Public Servants (ADEDY) called a 24-hour nationwide general strike, in opposition to government proposals to reform the social security system, and especially pensions (GR0104106F). The strike received unprecedented levels of support (GR0105108N), and the government announced a freeze of its plans pending dialogue with the unions. On 17 May, a second 24-hour national general strike on the same issue was held, as planned, and participation rates were as high as in the first general strike.
A press release issued by GSEE on 23 May 2001 stated that, through their unprecedented response to the call by GSEE and ADEDY and their mass participation in the two strikes, Greek workers had initially forced the government to withdraw its measures on social security. They had also, it was claimed, brought to the centre of the public debate GSEE's proposals and positions for addressing the problems of the social insurance system, adopting broader tripartite financing, and seeking new, permanent resources to offset the "social deficit" shown by the existing system. In GSEE' s view, mass worker participation in the strikes constitutes a mandate for the trade union movement to continue on its course of militant demands in order to promote the objectives it has set, until the problems of social security (problems that are directly connected to the promotion of tax reform) are addressed and resolved once and for all.
Following the two strikes, the Minister of Labour and Social Security, Anastassios Giannitsis, held bipartite meetings on 30 and 31 May with GSEE and ADEDY, with the aim of creating the conditions for commencing a dialogue on the social security system.
According to GSEE, its decision to respond to the invitation from the Minister of Labour and attend the meeting on 30 May, was solely for information purposes, and did not mean that the trade union movement was initiating or participating in any form of social dialogue - as the terms and conditions set by GSEE for its participation in such a dialogue had not been met. Furthermore, in response to a government proposal to set up a joint committee of experts, the GSEE president replied in the negative, claiming that such a move would be of no benefit. However, he did not rule out the possibility of a future bipartite meeting, provided that the government was ready to take a position on the demands made by the trade union movement. For its part, the government announced that the Ministry of Labour would go ahead and form a special technical committee of experts on the social security question. This committee will conduct an in-depth examination of two studies on the issue, one by the Ministry and the other by the Institute of Labour of GSEE/ADEDY (the latter was presented at a press conference on 14 May 2001).
The meeting of the Minister of Labour on 31 May 2001 with a delegation from ADEDY, which submitted a memorandum setting out its members' views, also failed to produce results.
Following these developments, a plenary session of the GSEE board was held on 31 May 2001 and, based also on decisions by the GSEE general council, resolved to:
In the framework of the decisions taken by the general council, the plenary session of the board authorised the GSEE executive to call strikes in the event of any surprise developments.