Archive note: This text comes from the old archive of Nomika Epilekta and is carefully preserved for historical and informational reading.

Labor bosses do not go to paradise; they go everywhere. Everything is paid for. DEI has enough for me, and the month has thirty-one days!

Trade unionists, like politicians, are professionally occupied with saving others. It is in their DNA. Can you imagine life without fantasies?

The trade unionist starts from the five-member student council at school and in the end becomes a member of parliament. Something similar happens with the church caretaker who becomes a church commissioner, or the poster hanger who becomes mayor after being a messenger!

We are talking about genuine meritocratic social advancement! The selflessness of these people is inconceivable. In the end, however, some "mistake" occurs and it is revealed that all of them (they, their relatives and their friends) are settled with houses, swimming pools and luxury cars. When I say "mistake", I mean that some independent (?) authority, some journalist outside the circuit, some SDOE in a crisis of conscience, airs the dirty laundry that stinks, reeks and gives off the odor of corruption. Then the professionals of the kind lose their bearings and, defending their acquired rights, do not know what to say, as for example the chief unionist of GENOP-DEI, Nikos Fotopoulos, threatened that he would commit suicide if it were proved that he had taken even one euro! Let us not overdo the drama.

Recently the scandal of DEI broke out and felony prosecutions were brought.

The Athens Court of First Instance Prosecutor's Office brought criminal prosecution against the responsible departments of DEI for the period 1999-2010, against GENOP-DEI and OKDE, concerning the expenses of GENOP.

The criminal prosecution was brought on the occasion of the report by Leandros Rakintzis on excessive expenses of the enterprise toward the employees' unions. More specifically, for breach of trust in service jointly and repeatedly by an offender who used special artifices resulting in significant reduction of public property; direct complicity by GENOP-DEI and OKDE-DEI and so on; and fraud jointly and repeatedly against all those who checked and approved the supporting documents for the overpriced expenses.

A tax audit by SDOE followed. During the audit (what else could SDOE do?) overbilling was found for travel costs and expenses, for studies assigned to relatives of trade unionists, whose fees were paid without the relevant files being delivered to the researchers! A classic case of well-paid home work!

It was also found that there are trade unionists who, apart from the hefty salaries they received without working, collected travel allowances of up to 265,000 euros!

In addition, documents were found showing that the selfless trade unionists of GENOP-DEI stayed in suites, paying 7,000 euros per night! All this must be proved.

Let us wait, with the thought that there is no smoke without fire...

Paschos Mandravelis writes well in Kathimerini of Saturday, April 7. Under the article there is a large photograph of the potential suicide.

Nikos Fotopoulos, with several days' beard, wearing a brown leather service jacket, waves some papers in front of the microphone. He is obviously declaring that injustice is choking him, as it chokes us too. But who listens to us without a microphone, except the coffeehouse keeper?

Nobody wants N. Fotopoulos to commit suicide, as he threatened to do after the many scandals of GENOP, which add up to millions of euros. "If even one euro is found on me, I will not resign, I will commit suicide." There is no need for suicides. It would be more practical and useful to return our money. In any case, GENOP-DEI and its trade unionists are paid lavishly by us, the electricity consumers and taxpayers, so that the labor bosses may have their comfort. And if they do not have the money (and it is a lot: the "fake" expenses alone are estimated to have cost us two million, not the great feast of GENOP), they can perhaps offer community work.

In the case of Mr. Fotopoulos and those with him, they could simply start working. As is known, DEI - that is, all of us - feeds hundreds of trade unionists so that they never set foot at their jobs.

The president of the DEI union Spartakos, Georgios Adamidis, told SKAI that during the period when the events included in the SDOE investigation were taking place, society did not have the problems it has today. Of course, one might respond that society has these specific problems precisely because "the events included in the SDOE investigation were taking place", but that is not our point.

Since, therefore, society today has the problems it did not have then, why do they not put their slogan into practice: "We fight for the people's electricity"? Let them do a day's work, brother! Let them honor the money they receive, instead of feeding us slogans with no material substance.

The reaction of GENOP to what is being revealed can be summarized in the proverb "the thief shouts so that the householder will be afraid". We are not referring to the indictment concerning overbilling for the little trips of the trade unionists. We are referring to the little trips themselves by the trade unionists and their families, to the salary privileges, to the overtime they pocket without working and to the out-of-town allowances they collect without moving.

If a trade unionist wants to convince us - now that society has the problems it did not have in the past - that he is turning the page, let him take one step forward. Let him clock in at his workplace.

We have had our fill of statements.

Have you seen DEI!!