Vasso Papandreou, champion of women in Greek politics, dies at 79

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Vasso Papandreou, a trailblazing Greek politician who served as a government minister, European commissioner and leading advocate for women’s representation in politics, has died at her home in an Athens suburb. She was 79.

No cause of death was given, but she had been in poor health for several years.

Her funeral was held Saturday outside Aegio, near the town of her birth in southern Greece, and was attended by former Socialist prime minister Costas Simitis and other veteran politicians.

Politicians across party lines paid tribute to Papandreou following her death Thursday, recognizing her contributions to Greece and dedication to social justice.

“Even though we found ourselves on opposite sides, I must admit she was a strong personality ... she earned the devotion of her friends and the respect of her opponents,” said the conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

Papandreou was a founding member of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement in 1974. She was unrelated to the party founder, Andreas Papandreou, but they had a brief affair in the mid-1970s, after which she left for the U.K. to complete her graduate studies.

She served in various ministerial positions in the Costas Simitis governments from 1996 to 2004, including minister of economic development, minister of interior, and minister for the environment, physical planning and public works.

Papandreou broke barriers as Greece’s first female European Commissioner from 1989 to 1992, overseeing employment, industrial relations and social affairs in the second commission led by Jacques Delors and was admired for her strong advocacy of democratic rights.

A champion for women’s representation, Papandreou led efforts to increase female participation in Greek politics. She successfully pushed for legislation requiring 33% female representation on candidate lists, starting with municipal elections in 2002 — building a foundation for greater gender balance in Greek politics.

Throughout her career, she advocated for workers’ rights, educational opportunities and support for mothers and individuals with special needs.

Papandreou won election to Parliament in six consecutive elections, from 1993 to 2009. For her first election, in a year when the Panhellenic Socialist Movement returned to power, she had prepared for a candidacy in the central Athens multi-seat constituency, but was shifted to the much larger Athens B constituency, in the capital’s suburbs, which, at that time, had 32 seats. The result was that she received a still-standing record 256,831 preference votes, many from female PASOK supporters who intended their vote as a rebuke to the party leadership.

In late 1994, she and three other lawmakers, including Simitis, formed what was called “the Group of Four” aiming to push the ailing party founder, Andreas Papandreou, into retirement. The group met several times at her home to coordinate their strategy. Andreas Papandreou finally bowed out in 1996 after his health took a significant downturn and was succeeded as prime minister and party leader by Simitis.

Born on Dec. 9, 1944, Papandreou studied economics in Athens before earning a Ph.D. from the University of Reading in the U.K., where she started her career as an academic before shifting to politics as Greece emerged from a seven-year military dictatorship.

FILE - Athens Mayor Dora Bakoyanni, right, speaks during a news conference as Public Works Minister Vasso Papandreou, center, and Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki listen in Athens, Greece, Feb. 18, 2003. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis, File)

Some 200,000 mail carriers have reached a tentative contract deal with the U.S. Postal Service that includes backdated pay raises and a promise to provide workers with air-conditioned trucks.

The new agreement, which still needs to be ratified by union members, runs through November 2026. Letter carriers have been working without a new contract since their old one expired in May 2023. Since then they have continued working under the terms of the old contract.

Both the union and the Postal Service welcomed the agreement, which was announced Friday.

“Both sides didn’t get everything they wanted. But by bargaining in good faith, we ended with an agreement that meets our goals and rewards our members,” Brian Renfroe, the president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, told The Associated Press. “To make that happen, the Postal Service had to recognize the contributions of members to the Postal Service and the American people.”

Among other improvements, the deal increases the top pay and reduces the amount of time it takes new workers to reach that level, Renfroe said. He credited Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and his deputy for bargaining in good faith throughout the arduous process.

The Postal Service said the agreement supported its 10-year “Delivering for America” mission to modernize operations and adapt to changing customer needs.

“This is a fair and responsible agreement that serves the best interest of our employees, our customers and the future of the Postal Service,” said Doug Tulino, the deputy postmaster general and chief human resources officer.

As part of the agreement, all city carriers will get three annual pay increases of 1.3% each by 2025, some of which will be paid retroactively from Nov. 2023. Workers will also receive retroactive and future cost-of-living adjustments.

There is also a commitment from the Postal Service to “make every effort” to provide mail trucks with air-conditioning.

In the summer the Postal Service began rolling out its new electric delivery vehicles, which come equipped with air-conditioning. While the trucks won't win any beauty contests, they did get rave reviews from letter carriers accustomed to older vehicles that lack modern safety features and are prone to breaking down — and even catching fire.

Within a few years, the new fleet will have expanded to 60,000, most of them electric models, serving as the Postal Service’s primary delivery truck from Maine to Hawaii.

Under the tentative contract agreement, the Postal Service must discuss with the union any plans to buy new mail trucks that don’t have air-conditioning.

This is the second contract negotiated since DeJoy was appointed in 2020. It is expected to take several weeks for union members to ratify it.

Rural mail carriers are not covered by the contract because they are represented by a different union.

FILE - The U.S. Postal Service's next-generation delivery vehicle, left, is displayed as one new battery electric delivery trucks leaves the Kokomo Sorting and Delivery Center in Kokomo, Ind., Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy, File)