President of the Greek Power Corporation Workers' Federation arrested

The occupation of the Central building issuing power bills in Athens ended with the intervention of riot police. The president of the Greek Power Corporation Federation, Mr Fotopoulos, tried to push them away along with other workers, but eventually police arrested him.

Many political figures visited the site to show their support to DEI employees, such as Panayiotis Lafazanis from SYRIZA and Spyros Halvatzis and Dionysis Tsaknis from KKE.

The president of the building that was occupied by the organized labour union GENOP DEI said earlier on Thursday that although the door to their offices is now open, nobody is willing to return to work due to the arrest of their colleagues.

For the moment, the system of the business remains offline.

Following the arrests, workers decided to move to a 48-hour strike fully covered by their union, GENOP.

The occupation had entered its fifth day on Thursday. The main problem is that the ongoing work stoppage is creating serious issues between the company and the consumers, many of whom might experience power cuts.

The takeover is being investigated as no one knows who gave the go-ahead for the power cut at the central DEI building.

Meanwhile, the Federation of Justice Employees of Greece issued a statement according to which police used excessive force outside the occupied DEI building in order to remove workers from the site.

“The arrests and all kinds of violence from police against popular protest will not pass, will not manage to suppress people’s ire which, at last, will crush everything and everyone who is against citizens’ interests”, the statement reads.