GREECE: A nationwide strike against government austerity measures in Greece grounds flights, halts trains and shuts schools

Record ID: 339721

  • Title: GREECE: A nationwide strike against government austerity measures in Greece grounds flights, halts trains and shuts schools
  • Date: 6th October 2011
  • Summary: PEOPLE WALKING ON SYNTAGMA SQUARE POSTER (GREEK) ANNOUNCING STRIKE (SOUNDBITE) (Greek) ATHENS RESIDENT, NELLY SFIGGOPOULOU, 24, PRIVATE SECTOR WORKER, SAYING: "The people who go on strike have their reasons. Those who don't, also have reasons why they go to work. The people who go on strike are mostly from the public sector. We, from the private sector have to work real
  • Embargoed: 21st October 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Greece, Greece
  • Country: Greece
  • Topics: Economy,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA39IR6NYGJTXO5086IT6DD7VFC
  • Story Text: Airliners were grounded, trains halted and tax offices shut on Wednesday (October 5) as Greek state workers walked off the job to protest against austerity, defying a plea by the government to rally behind its effort to fend off national bankruptcy.
    Hospitals ran on emergency staff and some state schools closed in the first nationwide strike against EU/IMF-prescribed salary cuts and layoffs after a summer lull. In Athens' airport, more than 400 domestic and international flights were cancelled, an airport spokeswoman said.
    The country's main labour unions ADEDY and GSEE expect hundreds of thousands of people to strike and thousands to take to the streets.
    "If we don't take our lives back into our own hands, and support our right to work, our right to life, how will we go on?" said Maria Bargiadaki, a public sector worker who joined the strike.
    Others said they would not strike although they could understand the reasons why others did.
    "The people who go on strike have their reasons. Those who don't, also have reasons why they go to work. The people who go on strike are mostly from the public sector. We, from the private sector have to work really hard," said 24-year old Athens resident, Nelly Sfiggopoulou, a tourist agency employee.
    The country's main labour unions ADEDY and GSEE have called for massive turnout in the walkout.
    State workers, students and pensioners will start gathering in central Athens at 0800 GMT. A few hours later they will march on the capital's central Syntagma Square and protest outside parliament.
    Communist union group PAME is expected to stage a separate rally. Police, fire brigade and coastguard unions said they would join the central Athens demonstration.
    The country's main labour unions, representing about half Greece's 5 million-strong workforce, have staged repeated strikes since Athens asked the European Union and the International Monetary Fund for a 110 billion-euro bailout last year.
    They say a new wave of salary and pension cuts, tax hikes and layoffs announced last month is hurting only the poor and pushing the economy deeper into recession. They have called a general strike on Oct. 19.
    Workers at state utilities marked for privatisation, such as dock workers at the country's ports in Piraeus and Thessaloniki and Public Power Corporation, will join the strike on Wednesday.
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