GREECE: Greek pension reforms provoke massive protest and minor scuffles

Record ID: 340200

  • Title: GREECE: Greek pension reforms provoke massive protest and minor scuffles
  • Date: 13th December 2007
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF TRAFFIC CONGESTION ON STREETS, LONG LINES OF CARS PILED UP ON ROADS/ PEOPLE ON MOTOR BIKES
  • Embargoed: 28th December 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Greece
  • Country: Greece
  • Topics: Economic News,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA1TVKG2OZQ9FH8A74OHSWGONVE
  • Story Text: At least 40 thousand protesters rallied against the government's plans to reform the pension system in the Greek capital on Wednesday (Dec 13) as part of a 24 hour strike that paralysed services.
    At least 40 thousand demonstrators brought the capital of Greece to a standstill on Wednesday (December 12) as they marched through the city shouting their determination to stop the government from passing reforms to the pension system.
    Factory workers, dancers, musicians, lawyers, and journalists were just a few of the many unions that participated in the march and 24 hour strike.
    Employees from Olympic Airlines, Greece's national carrier that is being threatened with a shutdown due to debt, demonstrated in their uniforms.
    Electricians from the public power company toted the ladder they use to climb on electricity pylons.
    "This (protest) expresses the anger and despair of the people, it expresses the wish (of the people) that these social security measures do not pass, and they won't pass." said Yannis Panagopoulos, president of the General Confederation of Greek workers, one of Greece's largest labour unions.
    Minor scuffles with police broke out after demonstrators broke shop windows with stones. Police fired tear gas on the crowd to disrupt them and detained at least one protester, but no other serious incidents were reported.
    All commercial flights were cancelled and urban transport came to a halt as part of the 24 hour action, causing heavy traffic from private cars and taxis on roads.
    Civil services, schools, courts, and banks closed while hospitals worked with emergency staff.
    There was a news blackout as journalists also striked.
    Labour unions want the conservative government to take back proposals to revamp the ailing social security system they say will have negative consequences for workers such as cutting benefits, increasing payments and raising the retirement age.
    The government, which won a second term in office in September vowing not to cut pensions or increase age limits, has proposed measures to encourage employees to stay at work beyond the 65 year age limit and is planning to merge more than one hundred pension systems into only a few.
    Analysts have said the pension system will collapse in the next 15 years due to the ageing population if it is not reformed.
    Unions have rejected repeated calls by the government to attend talks on the pension reforms.
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