Cleaners escalate protest actions & call for public support

English translation of the protesting cleaners' announcement by @inflammatory_ 

Bold & capital letters as seen at the original text

Cleaners staying overnight in a tent outside the Finance Ministry protesting layoffs & austerity measures
pic via @dromografos

REDUNDANT CLEANERS OF THE FINANCE MINISTRY

We are 595 female cleaners that have been working for many years at the Finance Ministry. Since September 18, 2013 we've been under the labour reserve scheme* and on May 18, 2014 we are losing our jobs, WE ARE GETTING SACKED.

We are all WOMEN, the gender discrimination is evident, most of us are over 50 years old and very close to retirement but will NEVER MANAGE TO GET a pension. Many of us are single parents and we've been providing this income for our family. 

The bailout policies compromise our right to work and live. The Greek unemployment overall at the moment is 27% and 62.8% specifically for women.

WE DON'T HAVE ANY HOPE TO FIND A JOB  

(WE HAVE) NO RIGHT FOR HEALTH CARE

Until 2005 we've been engaged under a "contract for service". Following a EU legislation and a fine for Greece, our contracts switched to "open-ended". The government is dismissing us to reduce the deficit, as it says. The truth is that we cost to the Greek state much less than the private cleaning services they are using now instead. For the Greek government and the Troika we are numbers, not humans.

For 8 months -since September 18- we 've been protesting every day outside the Finance Ministry. It has been an immense struggle that faced violence & clampdown by the Greek government. 

They thought we would make ourselves easy target and weak link especially because we are women at the bottom of the working class. However we fight on a daily basis along with thousands of other laid off people, against the measures of the Greek government and the Troika that destroy our lives and lead us to utter misery.

We continue our struggle:

• We stage a sit-in protest from today (May 7, 2014) outside the Finance Ministry
• We won't stop until we get justice
• We demand the right to work, social security & pension
• We fight with other workers altogether to abolish these policies that bring us to poverty 
• We demand the obvious: a life of dignity through our humble job

We are calling for solidarity with our sit-in protest

We can make it altogether 

* under the labour reserve scheme they get 75% of their salary for 8 months and then they get sacked for good