Fired ministry cleaners protest outside police headquarters, in solidarity with colleagues facing charges

Fired finance ministry cleaners, now in the 119th day of labour mobilisations to demand their jobs back, on Tuesday held a rally outside the Hellenic Police headquarters in Athens, in solidarity with three of their former colleagues summoned to testify before an examining magistrate.
The three have been charged with disturbing the peace, verbally abusing police officers and causing bodily harm to a police officer, during a protest by the cleaners outside the finance ministry on July 10.
"They are trying to frighten us into going home, which we will not do. We are determined and have right on our side. We want our jobs back, we cannot find work elsewhere. At 50 and 60 you no longer have rights in the labour market, even our children are jobless," said the head of the Fighting Cleaners Coordinating Committee Evangelia Alexaki.
The cleaners were joined by dismissed staff from the former state broadcaster ERT, teachers, workers in other sectors, trade unions and representatives of main opposition SYRIZA and Independent Greeks.
The 397 dismissed cleaners, laid off in the framework of a public-sector downsizing plan, have contested their dismissal in court and had obtained a lower court ruling ordering the finance ministry to immediately rehire them until a final decision on their case is issued. This ruling was in turn contested by the finance ministry, which has not executed the court order, and its petition to have the lower court's ruling overturned is to be considered by the Supreme Court on September 23.