Unrest is prevalent among the workers of the Metropolis store chain, after the notification from the new administration, (Andreas Kouris of MAD group – son of Makis Kouris, owner of the “Paron” newspaper), of his intention to unilaterally establish an obligatory 4-day work schedule with a corresponding reduction in wages, invoking financial weakness, as a reason for this.
This attack of the new management is taking place after it was preceded by 6 lay-offs at the beginning of the year and while intense rumors circulate of the closing down of some of the 12 stores of the chain in which roughly 200 employees work.
Based on the latest developments, the employer Andreas Kouris, passes the hot potato to the workers, forcing them to “select” between two “alternatives” – either that of the 4-day work, or 50 lay-offs, while at the same time he threatens with suspension of wages.
The difference between the two “alternatives” is not, of course, qualitative but strictly quantitative, since in order for 50 lay-offs to take place Kouris should reach deep in his pockets – allegedly empty – and provide severance payments.
On the other side, the adoption of the first “alternative”, which concerns the establishment of 4-day work, amounts to a corresponding reduction of wages of the employees (20%), the majority of whom only get basic wages. Moreover, this will mean demands for increased productivity, in order for them to cover productivity for the “lost” day. Whatever the case, Andreas Kouris, with the “clarity” that distinguishes him, “thinks always for the good of Metropolis”.
At the same time that the new management of Metropolis allege that the intense attack on the workers is taking place in order to rescue the enterprise, they go ahead and hire highly paid executives with triple and quadruple salaries compared to the meager wages of the overwhelming majority of the employees, that are now asked to sacrifice themselves or get slaughtered.
In the meantime, while Andreas Kouris had planned in advance his next steps, he was inviting with abundant hypocrisy the workers in the cutting of the new year cake so that they all celebrate together the… “growing” of the “family” (METROPOLIS – MAD).
What did it matter if barely 4 days before, he had dismissed 4 employees? What did it matter if precisely one week later he made known his intention for the establishment of a 4-day work schedule? What does it matter if contrary to the blaring announcements of the electronic poster-invitation he sent to all workers, the “family” not only will not grow but will shrink, and the flashy ceremony of cutting the cake has changed to a ceremony of hiding of an oncoming slaughter of the workers?
It would appear that the viability of Kouri’s “Metropolis” is becoming independent from his remaining enterprising activities, whose viability he also bemoans.
Which are they? Here is the list: Mad TV (television channel), Mad Radio 106,2 (radio station), Mad BG in Bulgaria (television channel), Mad World (international Greek musical channel broadcasting in Australia), Blue Channel (in collaboration with ANT1 Satellite, in America). Also, the thematic channels Studio+ – (musical television channel, which was created by Mad in collaboration with ERT, for ERT’s digital platform), VMA Channel (television channel dedicated in Mad Video Music Awards, which functions for one month every year, on the Nova platform) and five thematic programs of music on NOVA. In the Mad family we should also include the mad.tv site, the Mad Melody company, Mad Scanner (service for music recognition via mobile telephone), the Go Mad (interactive service on Nova), Mad Shop (internet CD shop) and Mad Teletext.
Finally, it would be worth asking what are the aims of a multifarious businessman, like Andreas Kouris, when he is launching such an attack at the workers, precisely just 2,5 months after the complete acquisition of the Metropolis chain.
In a similar vein, it would be worth asking why the viability of Metropolis is considered independent of the announcements of Kouris, on an interview in an economic newspaper (30/1), about the expansion of shops of the Metropolis chain on the Mall and in Village Cinemas which belong to his partner, Dimitris Kontominas, (whose daughter possesses 10% of the shares of Mad).
Given the unusual attack that the workers of Metropolis face, the self-organization of the employees, in order that the plans of the employers are not realized, becomes a one-way road. Let’s not forget that the four-day work plan accepted by the workers in “Radio Korasidi”, from September until December 2009, with the coming of the New Year was changed to a three-day work plan.