For the second time in three weeks, the Greek public and private sectors are grinding to a standstill with the general strike and demonstrations organised by the country's two largest umbrella unions, ADEDY (civil service) and GSEE (private sector), over the government's harsh 2016 austerity budget and upcoming insurance reforms and pension cuts.
GSEE and ADEDY gathered at 11am in central Athens' Klafthmonos Square, while the KKE Communist Party-linked PAME unionists – who always stage separate demonstrations from the large, umbrella unions - gathered in Omonia Square.
The association of self-employed Athens merchants also decided to close shop for the day.
Though the policies being protested are those agreed to by the government in the third bailout, the ruling SYRIZA party's labour section has called on workers to join the strike against austerity, tax hikes and pension cuts. “Let us keep hope alive, answering the daily blackmail by employers and the neo-liberal power centres of the country,” they said in a statement.
Mass transport employees are participating in the strike, either with work stoppages as the OSY union (trolleys and buses), or with full 24-hour strikes, as the STASY union (railway and suburban railway employees).
Workers of the trolley, bus, metro, electric railway and tram systems are staging work stoppages from the early morning shift start until 9am and then again from 9pm to the end of the shift today.
Due to the railway workers' strike today, all railway and suburban railway lines will be shut down, . The metro line from Doukissis Plakentias station to Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport will also be out of service.
All ships were docked at the ports from 1am today until midnight tonight, due to the strike called by the Panhellenic Seamen's Federation.
Lawyers in the capital will also be striking today, as decided by the board of the Athens Bar Association.
The Greek Federation of Secondary School Teachers (OLME) are also joining the strike, protesting against pension cuts and demanding the hiring of permanent teachers to cover teaching staff shortages.
Hospitals will be operating with skeleton staffs, while municipal employees (POE-OTA) are joining the strike to protest plans to privatise public sector cleaning services.
Yesterday, all Greek media participated in a strike one day early, in order to be able to cover today's mass demonstration. They marched on parliament and delivered a resolution demanding that the jounalists' ETAP-MME insurance fund remain independent and protesting “the daily blackmail by employers and the neo-liberal political centres of the country”. They are also demanding that a small tax on advertising that for decades has contributed to journalists' insurance funds be maintained and extended to journalists at internet news sites, which are currently excluded from insurance at ETAP-MME.
Οι πιο πρόσφατες Ειδήσεις
Διαβάστε πρώτοι τις Ειδήσεις για ό,τι συμβαίνει τώρα στην Ελλάδα και τον Κόσμο στο thetoc.gr
