Greek strike shuts down flights, transport, public services
ATHENS (AFP) — Greek unions Wednesday launched a one-day general strike against pension reform — the third since December — that paralysed public services and badly disrupted transport across the country.
Over 60 international and domestic flights by national carrier Olympic Airlines had to be sidelined because of a four-hour stoppage by air traffic controllers — one of many professional classes to join the labour action that will be joined by street protests.
Greece’s second largest carrier Aegean said it would cancel 23 of its flights and modify another 28.
Overall, the strike will keep ferries at port and paralyse nearly all intercity rail transport in addition to city buses, trams and trains.
It will also shut down the public sector, banks, schools and courts as lawyers are also opposed to the reform as are civil engineers and journalists.
Street demonstrations will be held in Greece’s main cities: Athens, Piraeus and Salonika.
“I think it will be the largest mobilisation ever carried out,” Yiannis Panagopoulos, head of the General Confederation of Greek Workers (GSEE), told a news conference on Tuesday.
Related labour action has already caused Greeks two weeks of misery — amid rolling power cuts and a garbage collectors’ strike that has accumulated thousands of tonnes of waste in the streets of main cities.
The government says the reform is imperative to save Greece’s cash-strapped pensions systems from collapse.
Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis has stated his intention to push forward regardless of political cost, though his administration rests on a thin majority of two votes in parliament.
Moreover a poll published on Wednesday found 71 percent of Greeks say they oppose the reform and 76 percent accuse the government of misleading them.
The reform is scheduled to be put to a vote in parliament on Thursday.