Theaters across Greece will shut down on Saturday as actors, technicians and other stage workers stage a 24-hour strike to demand collective labor agreements after more than a decade of stalled negotiations.
The strike was called by the Panhellenic Federation of Spectacle and Audiovisual Workers, which said performers and theater technicians have spent 13 years trying unsuccessfully to sign collective bargaining agreements with producers’ associations.
The walkout is expected to affect most performances in the country’s independent theater sector during the busy holiday period.
The federation said the Greek Actors’ Union first launched strike action in December to pressure employers to sign contracts, after more than a year of talks failed to produce results.
According to the union, producers have repeatedly declined to enter what it called “sincere and good-faith negotiations,” citing shifting reasons for delaying an agreement.
Union leaders urged all theater workers — including artists, technicians, production staff and front-of-house employees — to join the strike.
They stressed that the right to strike is protected under Greece’s constitution and warned that workers cannot legally be replaced or strikebreakers hired during the walkout.
The strike applies to all specialties in the independent theater sector, with limited exceptions for essential staff.
Security personnel responsible for building safety, ticket cashiers and communication staff assigned to inform the public may work, provided they were already scheduled under officially registered work plans.
The labor action comes amid renewed debate over working conditions in Greece’s cultural sector, where unions say short-term contracts and the absence of collective agreements have left workers vulnerable, even as theater attendance has rebounded in recent years.
No immediate response was issued by producers’ associations.