BANK Employees’ Union (ETYK) yesterday called all its members to a three-hour strike this Monday.
The union said the strike was a gesture of support to two National Bank of Greece (Cyprus) colleagues who were “without cause and arbitrarily” dismissed and to their remaining NBG colleagues who were “terrorised and blackmailed” on a daily basis.
The strike will be carried out from 3pm to 6pm.
The union went on to say that by law all bank employees had a right to join trade unions and were free to choose what union they joined.
“Anyone that denies us this right is acting illegally and must face the consequences of the law,” ETYK said.
“Anyone blackmailing you to leave the Union because otherwise you will lose your promotion or will be transferred elsewhere or may even lose your job, is violating the law and must bear the consequences,” the union added.
It said bank employees had already reported such incidents and that it would pass the information on to police for further investigation.
ETYK said it would not hesitate to report all illegal NBG goings-on even if it meant some blackmailers ended up in jail.
Responding to the strike announcement, NBG breakaway trade union SYPETE said the measure was “without substance, purpose or objective”.
SYPETE, which represents two-thirds of NBG employees, said that while other bank employees went on strike NBG would continue to work normally.
The union said that if other bank colleagues genuinely wanted to support them they should refrain from implementing unfair measures that would ultimately only harm NBG employees.
The union accused ETYK’s leadership of using “illegal, irregular and bullying” tactics to finish off what it had started and failed to accomplish last year. It also said ETYK was using the redundancy of two NBG employees as an excuse.
“ETYK’s leadership must finally realise that it has no right to play with the fate of simple employees who have nothing to do with it,” SYPETE said.
SYPETE was formed last year in a bitter dispute over the secondment of two NBG staff from Athens. The majority of NBG staff had supported management in the row and broke away from ETYK to form their own union. Last year’s strike crippled the bank’s operation and forced it shut for a month.
SYPETE said ETYK was acting self-interestedly, egotistically and vengefully to punish its former members for refusing to follow ETYK when it had called the shots.
On the other hand, ETYK claims NBG is the one acting spitefully by trying to weed out its last remaining supporters. NBG denies this.
SYPETE said any decisions and measures regarding NBG were entirely up to the bank’s own trade union and its members and had nothing to do with ETYK.
“We will not allow the National Bank to be unnecessarily dragged into unnecessary measures and employment disruption over the ETYK leadership’s whims and capriciousness,” it said.
