Food and Tourism workers in Greece will launch a 24-hour nationwide strike on June 24, 2026. They demand wage increases, overtime pay and better working conditions.

The nation-wide 24-hour strike in the food and tourism sector for June 24 was unanimously declared by the administration of the Panhellenic Federation of Food and Tourism Workers (POEET).

Workers complain that “intensification of labor has become the norm, work accidents are multiplying and employer arbitrariness is presented as “normality.”

As part of the mobilization, strike rallies have been planned at local primary unions, while in Athens the central rally will take place at 11 am outside the Labor Ministry.

The workers speak of exhausting hours, uncontrolled implementation of the 13-hour workday, circumvention of the implementation of the digital Labor Card, circumvention of sectoral collective labor agreements and labor legislation in general, indifference of the Government to the non-survival of seasonal workers since the unemployment fund remains fixed at 3 months, as well as high cost of living that crushes the family budget.

In a statement, they complain that the tourism “development” that “the government and big hoteliers advertise is built on exhaustion, underpaid work, endless hours and the violation of every labor right. While the profits of business groups are breaking one record after another, workers in the food and tourism sectors are being asked to work without hours, without a personal life, with salaries that are not even enough for the basics.

“We will not become the modern slaves of their five-star profits,” they stressed.

The main demands of the Food & Tourism sector are:

Substantial increases in wages and salaries.
Mandatory implementation of Collective Labor Agreements throughout the sector.
Enshrining the five-day-eight-hour workday and payment of all overtime.
Health and safety measures in all workplaces.
Immediate strengthening of control mechanisms against undeclared work.
Protection of seasonal workers and full insurance rights, as well as the restoration of the time validity to the pre-bailout-agreements levels.

“On June 24, we send a clear message: without us, no hotel, no restaurant, no tourist shop operates. We produce the wealth and we have the power to claim what belongs to us. In the face of employer arrogance and government tolerance, we respond with organization, unity and struggle. No worker at work!”, the relevant announcement also emphasizes.

PS For a third summer in a row, hoteliers and business in touristic destinations have been complaining about shortages in workers and spoke of 80,000 vacancies still beginning of the month.

However, the payments, the working and living conditions they offer to seasonal workers – such as 7-day work without day off during the season, 12-hours of work and often payments at a later point and not at the end of the month, scares away young workers who used to do the seasonal work in summer in order to earn money for the winter time.

These times of tolerance have been obviously over, only employers do not seem to get it.