On April 26, 1934, a meeting was held in which representatives of the Ministry of Labor also participated, in which a plan was discussed to reduce the number of dockworkers by approximately 200 (as the rolling mill would be put into operation) and the establishment of a pension fund for those over 40 years of age, they would leave. But a dispute arose over the amount of compensation and the workers declared a strike for May 8. On this day the professionals of the city, to express their solidarity with the dockworkers, closed their shops. In the meantime, trade unionists from Athens, who agreed with the proposal for the operation of the rolling mill, arrived in Kalamata; however, by decision of the general assembly of the dockworkers, the latter rejected the agreement and the Athenian trade unionists.[3]
Meanwhile, large-scale strikes occurred elsewhere in Greece: a strike in a cement factory in Elefsina started on May 1, which eventually lasted two months, while in Omonoia and Piraeus there were clashes between strikers and the police. Tobacco workers went on strike in Thessaloniki and Kavala and the demonstrations reached large dimensions.[4]
In Kalamata, in the morning of May 9, a team of strikers tried to stop the functioning of the rolling mill and then the soldiers opened fired against them leaving five strikers dead and 10 injured. Afterwards, the strikers took the dead bodies of their comrades and carried them through the streets of the city, in a state of rage while cursing the murderers. Protestors threw rocks at the building of the Bank of Athens and entered the house of an employer causing damage. New clashes followed in which two more people died and three were seriously injured.[3]
The events were condemned by workers throughout Greece and several protests and strikes in solidarity with Kalamata's strikers occurred the following days.[5]