ATHENS: Greek unions are set to stage fresh nationwide protest on Wednesday against austerity measures, that will likely to disrupt flights, halt ferries and cripple public services in the crisis-hit country.
Two largest unions of Greece, representing private and public sector workers, brought much of the near-bankrupt country to a standstill during a 24-hour strike over the wage cuts and high taxes, which they say only deepen the plight of a people struggling to get through the country’s worst peacetime downturn.
Representing about 2.5 million workers, the unions have gone on strike repeatedly since Europe’s debt crisis erupted in late 2009, testing the government’s will to implement necessary reforms in the face of growing public anger.
“The (strike) is our answer to the dead-end policies that have squeezed the life out of workers, impoverished society and plunged the economy into recession and crisis,” said the private sector union General Confederation of Greek Workers (GSEE), which is organizing the walkout with its public sector sister union ADEDY.
“Our struggle will continue for as long as these policies are implemented,” it said.
According to union researchers, two-thirds of employees in the hammered private sector no longer receive regular pay.
Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’s eight-month-old coalition government has been eager to show it will implement reforms it promised the European Union and International Monetary Fund, which have bailed Athens out twice with over 200 billion euros.
It has taken a tough line on striking workers, invoking emergency laws twice this year to order seamen and subway workers back to their jobs after week-long walkouts that paralyzed public transport in Athens and led to food shortages on islands.
But in a sign it is buckling under pressure, it announced on Monday it would not fire almost 1,900 civil servants earmarked for possible dismissal, despite promising foreign lenders it would seek to cut the public payroll.
