| To: Retort Via: AN [An employee describes conditions at the Marfin Bank in Athens where three workers died in a fire during the May 5 general strike. IB] Athens, May 5th, 2010 I feel an obligation toward my co-workers who have so unjustly died today to speak out and to say some objective truths. I am sending this message to all media outlets. Anyone who still bears some consciousness should publish it. The rest can continue to play the government’s game. The fire brigade had never issued an operating license to the building in question. The agreement for it to operate was made under the table, as practically happens with all businesses and companies in Greece. The building in question has no fire safety mechanisms in place, neither planned nor installed ones – that is, it has no ceiling sprinklers, no fire exits, no fire hoses. There are only some portable fire extinguishers which, of course, cannot help in dealing with an extensive fire in a building constructed to long-outdated safety standards. No branch of Marfin Bank has had any member of staff trained in dealing with fire, not even in the use of the few fire extinguishers. The management also uses the high costs of such training as a pretext and will not take even the most basic measures to protect its staff. There has never been a single evacuation exercise in any building by staff members, nor have there been any training sessions by the fire-brigade, to give instructions for situations like this. The only training sessions that have taken place at Marfin Bank concern terrorist scenarios and specifically planning the escape of the bank's “big heads” from their offices in such a situation. The building in question had no special provision in case of fire, even though its construction made it very sensitive under such circumstances and even though it was filled with highly inflammable materials from floor to ceiling, such as paper, plastics, wires, furniture. The building is objectively unsuitable for use as a bank due to its construction. No member of security has any knowledge of first aid or fire extinguishing, even though they are in practice charged with safety in the building. The bank employees have to turn into firemen or security staff according to the whim of Mr Vgenopoulos [owner of Marfin Bank]. The management of the bank strictly barred the employees from leaving today, even though they had persistently asked to do so from very early this morning – while they also forced the employees to lock the doors and repeatedly checked that the building remained locked over the phone throughout the day. They even cut off their internet access so as to prevent the employees from communicating with the outside world. For many days now there has been utter terrorisation of the bank’s employees in regard to the current mobilisations, with the verbal “offer”: you either work, or you get fired. The two undercover police who are deployed at the branch in question for robbery prevention did not show up today, even though the bank’s management had verbally promised the employees that they would be there. Finally, gentlemen, examine yourselves and stop wandering around pretending to be shocked. You are responsible for what happened today and in any just society (such as the ones you like to hold up from time to time as leading examples on your TV shows) you would have already been arrested for the above actions. My co-workers lost their lives today through malice: the malice of Marfin Bank and Mr. Vgenopoulos personally who explicitly stated that whoever didn’t come to work today [May 5th, a day of a general strike!] should not bother showing up for work tomorrow. - An employee of Marfin Bank |