"Greece has become an international point of reference and analysis due to its unfortunate pioneering role in the course of the current economic crisis. Since 2010, legal reforms linked to the “competitiveness” agenda set out in the main propagandists of neoliberal reforms (e.g., International Monetary Fund and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) have been promoted as a cure for the rising levels of public debt and deficit. The aim of this article is first to explore the competing views of the Greek labor market. As it is argued, Greece was not more heavily regulated than many other European Union member states, and labor law cannot in any sense be said to have caused the Greek sovereign debt crisis. Second, the analysis argues that deregulatory dynamics and welfare state retrenchment have turned unions and voters more radical, even if austerity policies are still winning. Such changes are driven by the meteoric rise of Syriza, and the decline of social democratic unionism in contrast to a stronger grassroots trade union movement with high mobilization and organizing capacities is another sign of the collapse of the old political order."

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