Talks with Troika start Wednesday on Labour matters

The start of talks between the Greek Labour Minister, George Katrougalos and the country’s creditors (Troika) on Wednesday, are highly anticipated, as the Greek Minister has made it explicitly clear that Greece would not budge on the issues of massive layoffs, lock-outs, defending the right to strike and wages. Katrougalos insisted that only 10% of the aggregate main and supplementary pensions had been affected, despite the fact that a further 150,000 new pensioners were see their EKAS cut in 2017. He was appeasing during his interview in Thessaloniki on whether any new matters would be included on the the agenda of talks with Troika, like the 3-year services and the 13th and 14th wages. The goal of the Greek side is for the IMF’s position’s to be isolated during the talks, with Katrougalos dubbing those views ‘extremely neoliberal’. Katrougalos said that all the unemployed journalists would be included in the new subsidised jobless programs.