We, the workers at Teleperformance, know first-hand what it means to work longer and longer hours and no longer be able to cover even the basics.
Our wages run out by the 15th of the month. Rent, bills, food and everyday necessities have sent the cost of living soaring, whilst our wages have not kept pace with those price increases in the slightest.
Our colleagues and our families are groaning under the weight of inflation, ever-rising rents and housing costs. Many of us have unpaid loans with unbearable repayment plans, with the threat of foreclosure by the banks and the vultures of the investment funds hanging over our heads every day.
This, combined with the government’s derisory pay rises, most of us don’t even see, and the legislative push to extend working hours by legalising 13-hour shifts – following a series of reactionary and anti-labour laws – to meet the needs of preparing the war economy, to maximise the profits of their monopolies, and to squeeze every last euro out of social benefits – which are regarded as a cost by the European Union – the guidelines of ‘Rearm Europe’ and the war preparations aimed at spreading the flames of war that the US, Israel, the EU and NATO have now fully ignited.
Our lives are not a cost; we refuse to live on crumbs whilst the profits of Teleperformance and its client companies soar by several billion every year thanks to our work!
At the same time, colleagues in departments of telecom providers, energy suppliers and even tech giants are being asked to handle multiple tasks – in other words, to take on more work – without any pay rise. And what’s more, with wages that have been frozen for years.
At the same time, there are still colleagues in other departments at TP who are forced to ask for permission to attend to basic human needs, such as going to the toilet, or are forced to miss out on a proper meal because the company refuses to accept the Union’s request for a 60-minute break.
At the same time, our job insecurity is intensifying as the company insists on using the disgraceful system of payroll companies with individual fixed-term contracts.
These short-term contracts are trampling on our rights, and leave us with no idea what the future holds, even if we have been working at TP for years.
Colleagues, what is truly modern today is not merely working just to survive, but having high-quality and free public healthcare, education, and the opportunity for entertainment, recreation, leisure and free time, as well as sport.
The response of the bourgeois governments to all this, however, is to spend more money on military equipment – money that is taken away from our needs.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
MONEY FOR WAGES NOW!
A COLLECTIVE AGREEMENT TO PROTECT US NOW!
Only we, through our collective struggle, can stand in the way of the plans of the bourgeois governments and their corporations, and fight for our rights.
EVERYONE, JOIN ON SUNDAY 18th of OCTOBER at 17:00 at the UNION’S GENERAL ASSEMBLY, at the Labor Center in Pireaus (Omiridou Skylitsi 19)
WE DISCUSS A COLLECTIVE AGREEMENT THAT TRULY MEETS OUR CURRENT NEEDS – UNITE OUR VOICES – AND ORGANISE OUR NEXT STEPS