Greece Set to Shut Down With Protests, Strikes
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Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’ uneasy coalition government,
poised to make another $14.6 billion in pay cuts, tax hikes and slashed
pensions on workers, the elderly and poor, faces its first test this
week with a series of work shutdowns, including a massive general strike
called for Sept. 26.
Protests, strikes and riots brought down the former government of
former prime minister and then-PASOK Socialist leader George Papandreou,
but Samaras, the New Democracy Conservative leader, has enjoyed a
summer delay with Greeks on holiday, as his administration worked on the
new austerity measures demanded by international lenders.
There have already been strikes and other protests by doctors,
pharmacists, police, uniformed military officers, teachers, and
university academics, but the general strike, called by the country’s
two largest labor unions representing public and private workers is
expected to draw scores of thousands of people in a volatile brew of
workers, pensioners, anarchists, right-and-left wing extremist groups
and students.
Public sector workers including tax and customs officers, social
security fund workers, employees at municipalities, prefectures and
public utilities, state-owned bank workers, merchants, lawyers and a
number of private sector workers will be participating in the 24-hour
strike called by GSEE and ADEDY.
Gas station owners also said that they will remain shut until 3 p.m.,
while a strike by air traffic controllers will mean interruptions to
flights, especially during the midday hours. Downtown Athens and
Thessaloniki are expected to experience serious traffic problems as
strikers hold marches, although the Athens Metro will stay open so
protesters can reach downtown venues, especially the main Syntagma
Square across from Parliament.
Education and health services will also be affected as elementary,
middle and high-school teachers walk off the job, along with university
professors, as well as doctors and workers at hospitals, medical centers
and the ambulance service. Trolley buses and blue buses will be running
limited services from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Greek university and technical college professors scheduled a rally
the late afternoon of Sept. 25, their unions said, in protest at plans
to further reduce public sector spending. The three unions representing
educators at tertiary institutions said they would form a symbolic
barricade of the ministries of Finance and Development in Syntagma
before marching to the main building of the University of Athens for
artistic events in support of their demands.
The unions have drafted letters addressed to Finance Minister Yannis
Stournaras and Development Minister Costis Hadjidakis, demanding a
meeting to discuss their complaints, including that cutbacks to
professors’ salaries and university and technical college budgets “are
making the smooth operation of institutions of higher education and
research problematic if not impossible.”
Their letter also says that, “We believe that you agree that
overcoming one of the biggest crises in the country’s recent history
requires – among others – the mobilization of all the economic,
productive, scientific, social and intellectual forces of this country.”
