The director of left-wing Sto Kokkino (At Red) radio station, Kostas Arvanitis, sparked a furore last week after describing a threat of strike-action by unpaid broadcast technicians as nothing short of blackmail.
“You can't quite call it blackmail. But then again, you can. I don't know how else to call it,” he said on his morning radio show.
The union of Greek radio broadcast technicians (ETER) had threatened to go on strike to demand two months (August and September) of unpaid salaries. (The radio station claims that it it had paid the salaries for August and still owed one month when the union announced the strike).. However, in order to avoid the strike, the radio station gave in to the union’s demands and paid all dues.
The Syriza-affiliated station has earned a reputation for supporting strikes and workers’ rights. (Left wing media outlets that are controlled by political parties are part of Greece’s political tradition as it is in France and Italy.) Arvanitis’ remarks came as a surprise to many across the political spectrum.
This sort of ‘neoliberal cynicism’, the union said, ‘has nothing to do with the sort of society envisioned by the Left’.
Arvanitis later apologised for his comments but the union was not convinced of his sincerity, claiming he feels a ‘mysterious and enigmatic’ animosity towards their union.
“Was it because ETER had the ‘audacity’ to want its working technicians to receive payment for their labour? Or was it because, after two months without pay, they dared to announce a strike last Wednesday?” the union asked in a statement.
“According to this reasoning, social relations are just a sequence of blackmail, blackmailers and blackmailed,” it said.
However, media reports and commentaries suggested that the union itself did not play by the rules because it failed to call for a work stoppage prior to its strike announcement, which is the common practise. Moreover, it was also faulted for not taking similar action in countless cases of unpaid workers at other radio stations.
Arvanitis reportedly said on the sidelines of a Syriza festival last Sunday that the station is struggling with cash flow problems because of an amendment passed in parliament that reduced state funding to the station. He also claimed advertising is at an all time low because of low ratings and a reluctance of companies to advertise on Sto Kokkino.
However, e-tetradio (link in Greek), a media watch blog, put the blame on Syriza for failing to meet its obligations to the station: “It’s not only shameful not to pay workers at its radio station, it’s also stupid especially when you’re seeking power. Is the way they (Syriza) intend to govern?”
Kostas Arvanitis has been an outspoken media personality. As The Guardian has reported, in 2012, he was summarily dropped, along with his co host Marilena Katsimi, from his morning magazine programme on state-run ERT TV because he turned the spotlight on the reaction of then public order minister, Nikos Dendias, to a Guardian newspaper report which carried claims by anti-fascist demonstrators that they had been tortured by the police.