GREECE: Hospital staff in Athens strike over unpaid wages

Record ID: 343427

  • Title: GREECE: Hospital staff in Athens strike over unpaid wages
  • Date: 7th May 2011
  • Summary: ATHENS, GREECE (MAY 6 2011) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF AMBULANCE WORKERS IN UNIFORM MARCHING IN ATHENS VARIOUS OF FIVE AMBULANCES DRIVING WITH PROTEST, THEIR SIRENS FLASHING AMBULANCE WORKERS SHOUTING 'LET PLUTOCRATS PAY FOR THE CRISIS' AMBULANCE WORKERS SHOUTING 'EVERYONE RESIST' FINANCE MINISTRY PROTESTERS MARCHING PAST FINANCE MINISTRY PROTESTERS SHOUTING 'GIVE MONEY T
  • Embargoed: 22nd May 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Greece, Greece
  • Country: Greece
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVACY76LOQS340HZLN5BF9S6PJ7R
  • Story Text: Doctors, nurses and ambulance workers walked out of hospitals and marched in their uniforms in Athens on Friday (May 6), after calling a three-hour strike over unpaid salaries and unpopular healthcare reforms.
    Protesters were angry over what they described as chronic problems with the health sector.
    The staff said hospitals suffered from severe shortages and that wages have been slashed to remedy the nation's huge debt.
    "We are staging an ongoing protest over overdue payments that are owed to us, we are owed pay since 2010 - this is pay that workers need as their income and we were told at the beginning of April we would be paid. We will continue our protests until the workers get paid," said president of the ambulance worker's union, Constantine Thoros.
    Exactly one year since Greece was bailed out by the European Union and International Monetary Fund the country has been forcing through reforms - such as cuts to state spending - to pull the country out of its debt crisis.
    "The difficulty the country faces cannot be solved with magical potions, with temporary measures, or with voluntary bankruptcies. It will be solved by major reforms, this is the potion. We will rely on our own strengths, and as many people as possible support these great changes then the faster we will come out of this tunnel," Prime Minister George Papandreou told members of parliament on Friday (May 6) during a debate on the economy.
    Greece is to receive its fifth installment of the EU/IMF loan in June after inspectors review its progress on reforms.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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