On Apr 21, 3:28=A0pm, Vngelis <meberr...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7357762.stm
> Greek farmers clash with migrants
>
> By Malcolm Brabant
> BBC News, Athens
>
> Map
>
> Fighting has erupted in Southern Greece between strawberry farmers and
> migrant workers striking for higher pay.
>
> According to a Greek trades union sup****t the migrants, about 400 were
> attacked by farmers and what were described as "hired thugs".
>
> Three trade unionists were hurt and one farmer was arrested, police
> say.
>
> The clashes occurred in an area hit by last year's fires, and where
> slave labour conditions for fruit pickers have recently been revealed.
>
> The fighting took place in the village square of Neo Manolada in the
> province of Ilia - which produces 90% of Greece's strawberries, and
> whose agriculture was ruined during the fires.
>
> No compensation
>
> Slave labour conditions in the strawberry plantations were exposed
> earlier this month.
>
> Most of the pickers are immigrants, and receive wages well below the
> national average.
>
> They live in shacks and are forced to pay as much as half their income
> in rent to their employers.
>
> Last week the workers from South Asia and the Balkans went on strike
> to demand that their daily wage be increased from $36 to $47 (=A318 to
> 24; 23 to 30 euros). The farmers say that would ruin them.
>
> Ilia is one of the areas complaining that it is still to receive
> compensation promised after the fires.
>
> For their part, the pickers say they are virtually destitute and are
> being exploited.
>
> Most of them came to Greece to send money back home to their families.
>
> But with food prices rising in Greece as elsewhere in the world, the
> migrants say they are finding it impossible to survive.
One wonders what side Vngeis is on....
David
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