REVOLT AND CRISIS IN GREECE
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that was welcomed across nearly all the political parties. Entering a rich man’s club like the EMU made the economic and political elite of Greece celebrate, and while the majority of the population initially seemed to share the general euphoria, it was quite soon that they would realise they were once again the ones to lose out. The adaptation of the Euro meant a gradual equalisation of the prices in the Eurozone area and as we can see throughout the last decade, inflation rates in the peripheral countries like Greece, Spain, and Portugal were higher than the average. And although it might be true that average real wages for these countries rose in the same period, large segments of the public ended up being worse off in the end. Average real wages do not take into account the wage distribution and the large inequalities prevalent there, as well as that inflation is not the same for all economic groups. When adjusting for these factors the gains of the workers are mediocre at best (see the INE Report 2010 for a relevant discussion), and it is not a surprise that a common slogan that people used is “we are becoming European in terms of the cost of living but not of the wages.” Furthermore, it is very remarkable that the fall of the share of income that goes to labour has been declining steadily since the early 1980s (roughly by 10% in the period 1983–2008; INE 2010). This share takes into account the ratio of real remuneration per worker over real productivity, and although real remuneration increased over that period, the workers’ productivity rose even further and thus they now gain less overall. Focusing on the last decade, workers lost income shares with respect to capital for almost all countries of the Eurozone (with the exception of Ireland) and this can be attributed largely to the labour market policies that were pushed forward and the wage setting bargaining processes (RMF, 2010a). Germany experienced the largest decline in the share of income that goes to labour and this comes at no surprise since there was an important wave of labour market reforms implemented by chancellor Schröder in 2003 (Agenda 2010) that also gained the consensus of mainstream unions for minimal wage demands. This point is particularly relevant today when, under the guidance of the troika, the Greek government implements wage reductions in order for the economy to gain competitiveness compared to its economic partners and therefore follows Germany in a race to the bottom. The best single measure to compare competitiveness in the Eurozone is the nominal unit labour cost. The trend for Germany is noteworthy, as it has remained almost flat throughout the period since the mid-1990s. However, nominal unit costs for peripheral countries (the so-called PIIGS: Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, and Spain) have