SETIP ELECTIONS 2-21 NOVEMBER 2024

JOIN THE SECTORAL UNION
VOTE FOR RADICAL I.T.

LET’S FIGHT TOGETHER FOR A
SECTORAL COLLECTIVE LABOR AGREEMENT

Radical I.T. is a tech workers coalition. We aim to organize workers in the tech industry through unions, committees, and grassroots initiatives. We collectively discuss our problems, opinions, and actions at our regular grassroots meetings. We participate in workplace unions, organize to establish new ones where none exist, and meet with all our colleagues, regardless of their specialization, in the sectoral union, SETIP. We insist that only if we fight united we can defend our rights and expand them based on the possibilities of the times.

Tech Workers in Times of Crisis

The recent COVID-19 pandemic showed us that employees and employers are not a “family.” We never were. We all remember the dreadful working conditions, mass layoffs, and the prevalence of remote work without rights. Then came the growing gap between corporate profits and wages. Companies saw profits soar by at least 35% over the past four years in Greece, while employee wages rose by just 14%. With inflation at record highs and rampant profiteering, our real wages dropped by 8%. We all feel it at the end of the month, paying rising prices at supermarkets, energy bills, and exorbitant rents in the city center.

Georgiadis-Hatzidakis Laws:
A Return to Labor “Dark Ages”

With the Georgiadis and Hatzidakis laws, the government set out to fulfill the harshest anti-labor demands of employers: elimination of the 8-hour workday, six-day workweek, “payment” of overtime with time-off, teleworking without rights or compensation for increased work expenses borne by employees, devaluation of labor inspection, digital work cards, abolition of Sunday rest for call centers, IT, and data centers, and “on-demand” contracts. To enforce these, the government weakened our only weapons: unions and strikes. Now, unions face surveillance through the GEMISOE registry, electronic voting to decide strikes, criminalization of strike action, and mandatory “safe staffing” levels during strikes for a third of telecom sector employees.

Technology for Society’s Needs,
Not for the Genocide of the Palestinian People

War flames in the Middle East grow, as the murderous state of Israel continues genocide in Gaza and extends attacks to Lebanon and Iran. Meanwhile, the NATO-Russia confrontation dangerously escalates in Ukraine, with EU countries pouring billions into military programs. Unfortunately, the Greek government stands on the wrong side of history, fervently supporting NATO’s choices, to the detriment of workers and society. Simultaneously, our work and expertise are used for war, inflicting suffering on entire populations, instead of improving lives. A notable example is the work of Intracom Defense, recently acquired by Israel’s IAI, which supports Israel’s genocidal campaign.

Teleperformance: When Grassroots Labor Struggles
Make Multinational Giants Collapse Like a House of Cards

The industry’s growth in recent years has not only brought more profits to the bosses but also more labor demands. Workers in the sector have fought against intensification and layoffs and struggled for collective bargaining agreements. Meanwhile, historic strikes at multinationals like Teleperformance, Webhelp, TTEC, Foundever, and Cosmote E-value, where thousands of workers demanded higher wages and decent working conditions, showed that organizing at work and mass coordinated action can bring us to stronger positions. The establishment of new unions at Teleperformance and Webhelp, with SETIP’s decisive involvement, fills us with pride. Now it’s time for the hundreds of new members, including immigrant colleagues, to engage in united, unwavering struggle.

For a Collective Bargaining Agreement
in IT and Telecommunications

The growth rate of companies providing IT services exceeded 20% by the end of 2023, and the industry association (SEPE) projects demand for 15,000 new skilled workers annually until 2030. Currently, skilled workers make up 40% of the workforce in this sector. The industry’s rapid growth shows it needs all of us, regardless of role. Now that they need us, it’s time to demand our rights with urgency, particularly the signing of a sectoral Collective Bargaining Agreement. We can work fewer hours and enjoy more free time, especially in the tech industry where productivity and profitability have soared thanks to fast internet, automation, and artificial intelligence.

What Kind of Union Do We Want?

In Radical I.T. we believe that sectoral organizing is necessary to unite individual struggles against employers and government policies. This is why we join SETIP, aiming for a mass union representing all tech workers, fighting for a sectoral collective agreement. A union open to new ideas, forms of struggle and partnerships with workplace unions in the industry. A grassroots union, which will take its decisions in General Assemblies. A democratic union that takes into account all the voices of its members and operates in a transparent manner. A militant union that will fight every time until its demands are justified against defeatism and bureaucratic trade unionism.

We invite you to fight this battle together. Let’s become a shield of protection for every tech worker out there, against the deterioration of our rights, precision, government policies and the threat of war.

• Sectoral Collective Bargaining Agreement with pay raises. No tech worker should earn less than €1000 net. 6-hour day, 5-day week, 30-hour workweek.
• An end to unpaid overtime, rotating on-call duty, and pressuring deadlines. Creation of work shifts based on project needs.
• An end to labor “renting” by temp agencies. Convert all contracts to open-ended with direct hiring.
• Protection for call center workers: heavy and unhealthy work benefits, frequent breaks for headset users, forbid call monitoring.
• Protection for field technicians. Provision of all necessary personal protective equipment by employers. No more deaths in the workplace!
• Protection for remote workers from employer overreach. No surveillance systems. Provision of necessary equipment and reimbursement by employers.
• Public, free, quality social services and goods. Nationalize PPC and other strategic enterprises without compensation, under worker control.
• Price controls on essentials and energy. No home without electricity, water, or heating. No foreclosures on primary residences. Affordable housing measures.
• Repeal of anti-labor Hatzidakis and Georgiadis laws. Hands off our strikes. No to electronic voting and registry surveillance in GEMISOE.
• No involvement of Greece in war. Withdraw from NATO. Shut down foreign military bases. Cancel excessive arms programs. Free Palestine!

Radical I.T. – Militant Initiative in Informatics & Telecommunications

#UnionizeTech #TechWorkers