Greek public sector workers held a 24-hour strike on Dec. 19 to protest the country’s new $17.45 billion austerity program and the prospect of looming job cuts. The walkout was the latest attempt to derail Athens’ fiscal reforms and was called by theĀ public workers union ADEDY.
“We demand that the government changes these unjust policies that hurt workers and kill the public sector,” said ADEDY chief Costas Tsikrikas. ”
Thousands of teachers, doctors and municipal workers were expected to take to the streets and rally in central Athens although far fewer were anticipated than last month’s big demonstration that failed to keep lawmakers from passing the new pay cuts and tax hikes that are coming.
Greece’s other major union, the private sector union GSEE, held only a three-hour stoppage in solidarity and joined the march to the Administrative Reform Ministry. The Communist-affiliated PAME group had a separate rally.
The Athens Metro and ISAP urban trains stopped from 5 to 9 a.m. while the Proastiakos suburban train service and OSE Hellenic Railways were shut for the day as well as Dec. 20 when the Metro was to be shut down for 24 hours as well, despite pleas from business owners that their Christmas sales, already down 18 percent, would suffer.
The Metro also will not run to the airport and
Olympic Air had cancellations and changes to its flights, as the civil aviation employees (OSYPA) stopped work for four hours. Hospitals ran with limited staff as the union of Athens-Piraeus hospital doctors and the nationwide federation of state hospital employees took part in the strike, which have all others since 2010, been ignored by the government.
(Source: HR-Net)
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