Greece - OTE strike threats

Greek telecom union demands public control and plans another strike

The Greek telecoms union (OME-OTE) is lining up another strike for this coming Monday.

As reported late last month the union is more than a bit sniffy over the arrival of Deutsche Telekom, which has announced that it’s buying 20% of the Greek incumbent operator and will seek a further stake to enable it to gain management control.

The union says it fears job cuts with DT at the helm and it wants the Greek government, which currently owns a 28% slice of the telco and controls management appointments, to keep its skin in the game to maintain ‘public control’.

The union’s March strikes were successfully challenged by OTE in court it's not expected to end the dispute with the union threatening yet more action in the future if its demands are not met.

However it seems likely that the Greek government will seek a compromise agreement with DT and the union, perhaps by shuffling ownership around a bit but still maintaining some control over senior appointments.