Journalists΄ strike – Journalists respond to employer intransigence with escalation of their struggle for decent wages

The Board of Directors of the Union of Daily Newspaper Journalists of the Peloponnese, Epirus and the Islands calls on all colleagues—both members and non-members of the Union—to participate in the new 24-hour nationwide strike across all media, declared by POESY (the Panhellenic Federation of Journalists’ Unions) and the Journalists’ Unions, on Thursday, June 12.

Colleagues are called to strike from 5:00 a.m. on Thursday, June 12, until 5:00 a.m. on Friday, June 13.

The strike includes journalists working in newspapers, magazines, public, municipal, and private radio and television stations, the Athens News Agency - Macedonian Press Agency, press offices, online media and all other workplaces.

The Boards of Directors of POESY and its member Journalists’ Unions—taking into account the clear message from the profession through the massive participation in recent strike actions demanding Collective Labour Agreements and decent wages—have jointly decided to carry out two successive 24-hour strikes: the first on Thursday, June 5, and the second on Thursday, June 12, 2025.

The strike action covers all journalists in all media across the country, from 5:00 a.m. Thursday, June 12, to 5:00 a.m. Friday, June 13, 2025.

The employers’ associations, in an unprecedented display of intransigence—without even invoking financial hardship—ignore the rising cost of living that daily erodes real wages, reject collective bargaining, insist on freezing Collective Labour Agreements for the past 17 years, and maintain the stranglehold of individual contracts, which perpetuate huge wage inequalities.

The Union of Private National Television Stations (EITISEE), the Online Publishers Association (ENED), and the Association of Owners of Private Radio Stations of Attica (EIIRA) continue to reject the basic demand for Collective Labour Agreements in all meetings with ESIEA. Meetings with the Union of Regional Television Stations have proven equally fruitless, and no progress has been made with the employers’ association for regional daily newspapers. Particularly telling is the lack of any response from the Association of Owners of Athens Daily Newspapers (EIHEA) to ESIEA’s request to engage in collective bargaining.

This indifference by employers—some of whom are among the financially strongest players in the country—is deafening. Especially as they cite the timeline for implementing the so-called “roadmap” to cover 80% of salaried workers in Greece.

We demand:

1. Substantive and productive collective bargaining to end the captivity of individual employment contracts.

2. Starting salary of €1,250 across all media outlets.

3. 10% pay increases based on the most recent Collective Labour Agreements.

4. Guaranteed compensation for weekend work (+25% and time off for Saturday work, and 100% for Sunday work), and increased compensation for out-of-office assignments.

5. Daily allowance of €350 for assignments in war zones and €250 for regions affected by natural disasters.

6. Integration of our institutional demands into Collective Labour Agreements, including:

   • Enshrining ethical principles

   • Agreement on anti-SLAPP regulations

   • Binding rules on the use of Artificial Intelligence in journalism

7. Fair remuneration for journalists’ intellectual property rights in print, broadcast, and online media.

8. Emergency financial aid to combat the cost-of-living crisis, proportionally similar to that provided in public media.

9. Promotion of measures to combat profiteering in food, energy, and rent sectors.

10. Lifting of restrictions on the unilateral recourse to arbitration procedures.

11. Support measures for the print press to preserve jobs—putting a halt to over-consolidation in the media and ensuring transparency in media ownership.

We call for the lifting of restrictions on signing a single Collective Labour Agreement for public media, with institutional and financial terms. During the crisis, the Collective Agreement for public media and the Joint Ministerial Decision on journalists' pay provided some support. Now, an increase is imperative, with a starting salary of €1,250 for the first two years, to uplift all existing pay scales. We also demand the restoration of the 13th and 14th salaries in public media and pensions, along with immediate payment of retroactive amounts to retirees. Furthermore, an end must be put to the abusive practice of contract-for-service arrangements in the public sector.

We call on:

• Employers’ associations to abandon their extreme intransigence.

• The Ministry of Labour and Social Insurance to take initiatives that will allow free collective bargaining in the journalistic sector, culminating in Collective Labour Agreements that cover the entire profession.

The Boards of Directors
of the Federation and the Journalists’ Unions