GREECE: Civil servants including air traffic controllers walk off the job for four hours disrupting flights

Record ID: 339824

  • Title: GREECE: Civil servants including air traffic controllers walk off the job for four hours disrupting flights
  • Date: 16th July 2010
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS BANGING DRUMS AND PLAYING OTHER MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS AT PROTEST PROTESTER BANGING ON DRUM MORE OF PROTESTERS PLAYING MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
  • Embargoed: 31st July 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Greece
  • Country: Greece
  • Topics: Employment,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA6SNRW1HX9IRLF880KJNMA07G7
  • Story Text: Greek civil servants, including air traffic controllers, stage a four hour work stoppage over government labour and pension reform.
    Civil servants staged a four hour work stoppage as part of a public sector walkout on Thursday (July 15), as strikes and protests over government economic cost cutting continue.
    Some 23 return flights were cancelled and 64 rescheduled in Greece after air traffic controllers joined in the four hour action. But Athens International Airport was calm, with very little traffic as it appeared travellers seemed to be aware of the walkout.
    The stoppage is part of an anti-austerity strike by the main public sector union ADEDY whose members marched to parliament where lawmakers were voting on details of civil servants' retirement conditions. The turnout to the march was very low however with only a few hundred protesters attending.
    Civil servants walked off the job from 08:00 to 12:00 gmt, essentially working a half day.
    Workers are protesting changes to pensions and social security benefits as part of the sweeping program by the government to reign in its debt, which also cuts wage benefits.
    Unions have staged six 24 - hour strikes in the last six months and several protests. They are winding down however as the summer holiday season kicks in. The last protest drew about 12,000 protesters and ended peacefully, a reduced number than from previous protests.
    "We are telling the government for the last time that we reject their policies. This is a bancrupt policy, that has not exit. As of tomorrow preparations will begin for the next battle of resistance against these decisions, and you will see in September the people will rise up and demonstrate.. and the Europepeans will as well because they have also realised that these policies are a catastrophe for the people of Europe," said ADEDY General Secretary Ilias Iliopoulos.
    Air traffic controllers have been limiting their strikes in respect for the tourism season, which has been affected by the strikes and protests. A four hour walkout by employees at the Acropolis a day earlier saw tourists piling up at the site waiting for the strike to end.
    In spite of the repeated strikes and protests the government has pushed through the reforms, including approving last week a new pension reform bill that curbs early retirement and raises the retirement age from 60 for women to 65 for all. The government has said the pension system would go bust if not reformed and wants to put an end to waste in a bloated public sector.
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