Greece: Capitalist profit kills 4 women workers dead at biscuit factory. Justice for our class.

In the early hours of 26 January 2026, a large-scale explosion followed by a fire occurred at the Violanta biscuit factory in Trikala (Central Greece). Four women workers have been confirmed dead, while one additional worker remains missing. At the time of the incident, the factory was operating during the night shift, with over a dozen workers present on site.

According to statements by trade unions and the Trikala Labor Center, the factory had been operating under conditions of intensified labor, night work, and inadequate safety measures. Union representatives report that no effective state safety inspections had been carried out, despite repeated warnings and interventions in the area over the past period.

This incident is not an isolated event, but part of a broader pattern. Workplace deaths and severe injuries have become a systemic feature of capitalist production, driven by profit maximization, flexible labor regimes, understaffing, and the systematic degradation of occupational health and safety standards. These conditions are reinforced by a legislative framework that weakens labor protections, restricts union activity, and prioritizes “competitiveness” and profitability over human life.

While employers and the state promote “development” and “growth,” this development is measured in exhausted, injured, and dead workers, declining real wages, and expanding precarity. The contradiction is clear: rising corporate profits coexist with the absence of even minimal investments in workplace safety.

The deaths at Violanta come at a time when workers face high inflation, soaring housing costs, stagnant wages, and increasing individualization of labor, while collective organization and strike action are subjected to repression and criminalization. Under these conditions, class organization and collective struggle are not optional but necessary for survival.

Trade unions and class-based labor organizations are calling for:

Full investigation of the causes of the fire and criminal accountability for those responsible.

Immediate material support and compensation for the families of the dead and the injured.

Mandatory and enforceable health-and-safety measures under worker control, including the right to halt production in unsafe conditions.

Strengthening of trade unions and protection of the right to strike and organize.

The struggle for workers’ lives is inseparable from the struggle against the system that sacrifices them.